35 
ACTIVITY. 
THYME. 
The wild bee ’mid a bed of thyme. 
H. COLERIDGE. 
F'ums of all shapes, beetles of every colour, 
with the industrious bee and gay butterfly, 
continually surround the flowery tufts of 
thyme. It may be that this lowly plant 
appears to these light-winged inhabitants of the 
air, whose ephemeral lives cease ere spring © 
closes, as an immense tree covered with eternal 
verdure, and as old as the earth itself, upon 
which these sparkling flowers are fixed, like so 
many splendid vases filled with honey for their 
use and enjoyment alone. 
The ancient Greeks regarded thyme as the 
symbol of activity. No doubt they had ob- 
served that its aromatic perfume was very salu- 
tary to the aged, whose exhausted powers it 
revives, imparting fresh energy and vigour. 
Activity is a warlike virtue, and is inva~ 
riably associated with genuine courage. In the 
days of chivalry, ladies often embroidered on 
the scarfs of their knights, a bee hovering 
around a sprig of thyme. It is said, that 
he who adopted this two-fold symbol was 
endowed with the quality of gentleness in all 
his actions. 



