Part 56

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I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed; But let me that plunder forbear, She will say, ’twas a barbarous deed.

“For he ne’er could be true,” she averred, “Who could rob a poor bird of its young;” And I loved her the more, when I heard Such tenderness fall from her tongue.

Shenstone.

HAZEL.... Peace--Reconciliation.

Fable gives the following account of the origin of the signification of the Hazel. There was a time when men were at constant war with each other, and could not be restrained from cruelty and revenge by any tie of kin. The gods at length took pity on them. Apollo and Mercury made presents to each other, and descended to the earth. The god of harmony received from the son of Maia the shell of a tortoise, out of which he had constructed a lyre, and gave him in exchange a Hazel stick, which had the power of imparting a love of virtue and of reconciling hearts divided by envy and hate. By the power thus given him, Mercury taught men the love of peace, and of home and country, and made commerce the bond of nations. Adorned with two light wings, and entwined with serpents, the Hazel rod given to the god of eloquence by the god of harmony is still, by the name of caduceus, the emblem of peace, commerce, and reconciliation.

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Oh then that wisdom may we know, Which leads a life of peace below!

Sprague.

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Peace, sweet peace is ever found In her eternal home on holy ground.

Mrs. Embury.

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And see, As yet unclothed, the Hazel tree Prepares his early tufts to lend The coppice first-fruits; and depend In russet drops, whose clustered rows, Still closed in part, in part disclose, Yet fenced beneath their scaly shed, The pendent anther’s yellow head.

Louisa A. Twamley.

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I trust the frown thy features wear, Ere long into a smile will turn; I would not that a face as fair As thine, beloved, should look so stern. The chain of ice that winter binds, Holds not for aye the sparkling rill; It melts away when summer shines, And leaves the waters sparkling still: Thus let thy cheek resume the smile That shed such sunny light before; And though I left thee for a while, I’ll vow to leave thee, love, no more.

Wm. Leggett.

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Come, while the morning of thy life is glowing, Ere the dim phantoms thou art chasing die-- Ere the gay spell, which earth is round thee throwing, Fades like the crimson from a sunset sky. Life is but shadows, save a promise given, Which lights up sorrow with a fadeless ray. Oh, touch the sceptre!--with a hope in heaven, Come, turn thy spirit from the world away.

Anon.

OAK.... Nobility.

The form of the Oak tree, when grown fairly and naturally, is a perfect emblem of its qualities, so firm set, so massive, and strong. You may always know it instantly, whether as a wintry skeleton form, bare, and gnarled, and angular, or in its summer garb of rich and finely massed foliage, always the monarch of the woods.

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True is, that whilome that good poet said, The gentle mind by gentle deeds is known, For man by nothing is so well bewrayed As by his manners, in which plain is shown Of what degree and what race he is grown.

Spenser.

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How vain are all hereditary honours, Those poor possessions from another’s deeds, Unless our own just virtues form our title, And give a sanction to our fond assumption!