INTRODUCTION. 
15 
And among other poets we often meet with 
allusions to floral dials. 
The dial, hid by weeds and flowers. 
Hath told, by none beheld, the solitary hours. 
WILSON. 
Young Joy ne’er thought of counting hours, 
’Till Care, one summer’s morning, 
Set up, among his smiling flowers, 
A dial by way of warning. Murray. 
What a wide field for the imagination is 
displayed in the succeeding quotation from 
Hartley Coleridge. We might fancy ourselves 
luxuriating in a garden of roses, where “ every 
flower that blows ” would add to our felicity; 
where the most agreeable and delightful com¬ 
panions were assembled to pass the hours in 
heedless pleasure, —where no care, — no sor¬ 
row,— no unpleasant recollections of past 
disappointments, — of hopes destroyed, — or 
the overthrow of anticipated happiness, — are 
allowed to interrupt our joy, and mar the 
beauty of the enchanted scene. Alas! these 
