LEGEND OF THE FLOWER-SPIRITS. 109 
flower wave,—humble, but high over all,—the ever¬ 
lasting emblem of Fidelity throughout all change.” 
“ Nor shall its influence end there,” said the 
superintending spirit, rising like a tall angel as she 
spoke, from amid her sister-spirits of the flowers. 
“ I will give it a greater power: it shall stand up 
like a landmark between the past and the present; 
it shall recall images of beauty which have faded 
away, and, throughout unnumbered ages, stand like 
a sage moralist, proclaiming to the children of 
men how fleeting is all earthly splendour; it shall 
lift the mind to the contemplation of an imperish¬ 
able immortality, and raise the thoughts to another 
world, where beauty decayeth not, and where the 
blushing cheek of Happiness is never touched by 
the pale finger of sorrow. Wherever the Wood¬ 
bine is seen it shall denote Affection, — the de¬ 
votedness of a fond heart, that clings unto what 
it loveth until it dies; but it shall not outlive 
the object to which it is wedded, for, when once 
untwined from its affectionate embrace, it shall 
wither and pine, and die away, and be no more. 
Not so with the Wallflower: when all beside have 
perished and decayed, when the carved and vaulted 
roof has mouldered away, when the tall turret has 
fallen, stone by stone, and crumbled into dust, it 
shall still wave above the mound of buried ruins, like 
Beauty bending over, and silently contemplating 
