123 
GLORY. 
LAUREL. 
The Greeks and Romans consecrated 
crowns of laurel to glory of every kind. 
With them they adorned the brows of war¬ 
riors and of poets, of orators and philoso¬ 
phers, of the vestal virgin and the emperor. 
This beautiful shrub is found in abundance 
in the island of Delphos, where it grows na¬ 
turally on the banks of the river Peneus. 
There its aromatic and evergreen foliage is 
borne up by its aspiring branches to the height 
of the loftiest trees ; and it is alleged that by 
a secret and peculiar power they avert the 
thunderbolt from the shores they beautify. 
The beautiful Daphne was the daughter of 
the river Peneus. She was beloved by 
Apollo: but, preferring virtue to the love of 
the most eloquent of gods, she fled, fearing 
that the eloquence of his speech should lead 
her from the paths of virtue. Apollo pur¬ 
sued her; and as he caught her, the nymph 
invoked the aid of her father, and was 
changed into the laurel. 
In our free land, where letters are so ex¬ 
tensively cultivated, they who succeed in 
exciting popular favour meet with more re¬ 
muneration than in ancient days; but how 
few have been honoured so highly as their 
