
IMMORTALITY. 
AMARANTH, 
Tue amaranth is one of the latest gifts of 
autumn, and when dead its flowers retain their 
rich scarlet colour. The ancients have asso. 
ciated it with supreme honours ; choosing it to 
adorn the brows of their gods. Poets have 
sometimes mingled its bright hue with the dark 
and gloomy cypress, wishing to express that their 
sorrows were combined with everlasting recol- 
lections. Homer tells us, that at the funeral 
of Achilles, the Thessalians presented them- 
selves wearing crowns of amaranth. 
Milton, in his gorgeous description of the 
court of heaven, mentions the amaranth as being 
inwoven in the diadems of angels— 
With solemn adoration down they cast 
Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold; 
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 
In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 
Began to bloom; but soon for man’s offence 
To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, 
And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life, 
And where the rivers of bliss through midst of heaven 
Rolls o’er Elysian flowers her amber stream, 
With those that never fade. 


















