LIVELY AND PURE AFFECTION. 183 
its delicious perfumes, and continually labours 
to shed its foreign costume, and renew its na¬ 
tive attire. For though the hand of the gar¬ 
dener can double and triple, and variegate its 
dress, it cannot render its acquired qualities 
permanent. Thus nature has deposited in 
our hearts the germs of the most excellent 
sentiments. Art and society cultivate and 
develope these, embellishing, enfeebling, or 
exalting them. A variety of causes uniting 
are able to render their effects inconstant and 
changeable; but, in spite of the caprices, 
rrors, and incomprehensible sports of the 
numan heart, nature always brings back affec¬ 
tion to its primitive simplicity. La Roche¬ 
foucauld has said that, “ True love is like the 
apparition of spirits ; all the world speaks of 
it, but few have seen it.” What does the 
gloomy moralist mean by true love ? Would 
he persuade us that it is a chimera ? Ah! 
no! we find 
True love’s the gift which God has given 
To man alone beneath the heaven. 
***** 
It is the secret sympathy, 
The silver cord, the silken tie, 
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, 
In body and in soul can bind. scott. 
There is an anecdote connected with the 
pink, which shows how far the mind may be 
