230 
PURITY AND MODESTY. 
have here also the expression of the very 
spirit of heauty in which flowers were created 
—a spirit so boundless and overflowing that 
it delights to enliven and. adorn with these 
riant creatures of sunshine the solitary 
places of the earth ; to scatter them by my¬ 
riads over the very desert ‘ where no man is, 
on the wilderness where there is no man ; 
sending rain ‘ to satisfy the desolate and 
waste ground, and to cause the hud of the 
tender herb to spring forth.’ ” 
It is generally admitted that the white lily 
is a native of Palestine. The Heathen na- 
tions consecrated it to Juno, contending by 
their fable that it sprang from the milk of 
that goddess ; as we read that Jupiter, being 
desirous of raising Hercules to the rank of 
a divinity, induced Juno to drink deep of a 
cup of nectar, which threw the queen of the 
gods into a profound sleep. Jupiter placed 
Hercules at her breast, that the divine milk 
might enter his frame, and thus work his 
immortality. The infant was not able to 
swallow so rapidly as he drew the milk from 
her celestial breast, some drops of which 
falling on the earth, this flower sprung up 
from it; hence it has been called Juno’s 
rose. 
In the Hebrew language the name Susan¬ 
nah signifies a lily; and all nations agree m 
considering it the symbol of purity and mo- 
