AMERICAN PREFACE. 
v 
gery. Let the Trefoil indicate the cross, or he suspended 
over the lintel, to point out the destined of fate ; for these 
things have been done for hundreds of years : harmless and 
sweet fantasies like these redeem this dull, work-day world. 
Let them still give “ Rosemary for Remembrance ” and 
“Pansies for Thought”—- 
“ Daffodils 
That come before the swallow does , and take 
The winds of March with beauty ; Violets dim, 
But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes, 
Or Cytherea’s breath ; pale Primroses, 
That die unwedded.” 
Here Shakspeare has given us a whole vocabulary of sweet¬ 
ness ; Daffodils, which he would have christened Trustful¬ 
ness, as trembling into life and loveliness despite the bleak¬ 
ness of March—Violets, modesty or reserve, making the 
regal Juno, with azure-veined, large, drooping lids, the per¬ 
fection of imagery, by which her resplendent charms are soft¬ 
ened to the most exquisite grace—“ pale Primroses ” should 
be forsaken: “ Violets dim”—we have never found a tuft 
of our wild Violets, without a sense of the fine perception of 
Shakspeare in the use of the phrase “ dim.” The Violet is 
found rather by its fragrance than show, choosing, as it 
does, some sheltered nook by mossy stone, or south hill-side, 
where its deep blue so blends itself with clustering leaves 
of green, that dim is the very word to express its loveliness, 
and to indicate the surprise which its freshness of beauty 
creates, so like a dark eye humid with light beneath the 
veined lid. 
