TANSY.

Tanacetum.

LANGUAGE COURAGE.

THINK'ST thou there dwells no courage but in breasts That set their mail against the ringing spears, When helmets are struck down? Thou little knowest Of nature's marvels.

He is a coward who would borrow

MRS. HEMANS.

A charm against the present sorrow
From the vague future's promise of delight:
As life's alarums nearer roll,

Th' ancestral buckler calls,
Self-clanging from the walls

In the high temple of the soul;

Where are most sorrows, there the poet's sphere is

To feed the soul with patience,

To heal its desolations

With words of unshorn truth, with love that never wearies.

J. R. LOWELL.

I slept, and dreamed that life was beauty;
I woke, and found that life was duty:
Was my dream, then, a shadowy lie?
Toil on, said heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy life to be
A noonday light and truth to thee.

THISTLE.

Carduus Cameolatus.

LANGUAGE-NEVER FORGET.

FORGET me not! What varied feeling
These little magic words impart!
Absence and love at once revealing,

They sadden while they soothe the heart.

Forget me not! Whatever woes

In life's precarious paths beset me,
They'll soften, if affection knows

That those I love will not forget me.

Forget thee! forget thee! How can I forget,

When not a sigh leaves me which breathes of regret,
When not a wish passes but finds in my breast
A hope for thy welfare, a prayer for thy rest?
Forget thee! forget thee! I cannot forget,

When not a sigh leaves me which breathes of regret.

Forget thee! forget thee! How can I forget,
While deeply, most deeply, thine image is set?
And nought from this bosom that image will tear;
Forever, yes, ever, that image I'll wear.
Forget thee! forget thee! I cannot forget,

While deep in my bosom thine image is set.

TULIP, RED.

Tulipa Gesneriana.

LANGUAGE-DECLARATION OF LOVE.

Look how the blue-eyed violets
Glance love to one another!
Their little leaves are whispering
The vows they may not smother.
The birds are pouring passion forth
In every blossoming tree.

If flowers and birds talk love, lady,
Why not we?

And over all the happy earth
Love floweth, like a river -

True love, whose glory fills the sky
Forever and forever.

The pale hearts of the silver stars
Throb, too, as mine to thee;
All things delight in love, lady;
Why not we?

I love thee, and I feel

That on the fountain of my heart a seal

Is set to keep its waters pure and bright
For thee.

And many hours we talked in joy,

Yet too much blessed for laughter;

I was a happy man that day,

And happy ever after.

ANON.

SHELLEY.

MRS. HOWITT.

TULIP.

Tulipa.

LANGUAGE BEAUTIFUL EYES.

THOSE eyes, those eyes, how full of heaven they are,
When the calm twilight leaves the heaven most holy!
Tell me, sweet eyes, from what divinest star
Did ye drink in your liquid melancholy?
Tell me, beloved eyes!

I look upon the fair blue skies,
And nought but empty air I see;
But when I turn me to thine eyes,

It seemeth unto me

Ten thousand angels spread their wings

Within those little azure rings.

Those eyes,

Soft and capacious as a cloudless sky,

BULWER.

O. W. HOLMES.

Whose azure depths their color emulates,

Must needs be conversant with upward looks,

Prayer's voiceless service.

WORDSWORth.

The bright black eye, the melting blue,

I cannot choose between the two.

But that is dearest, all the while,

That wears for us the sweetest smile.

O. W. HOLMES.

THE CHARITIES THAT SWEETEN LIFE.

PLEASANT Words! Pleasant words! Do you know, kind reader, how potent a spell lies in a pleasant word? Have you not often thought of its power to soothe to charm. to delight, when all things else fail? As you have passed on through the journey of life, have you not seen it smoothing many a ruffled brow, and calming many an aching bosom? Have you not noticed it in the house, and by the way — at the fireside, and in the place of business? And have you not felt that pleasant words are among the "charities that sweeten life"? Ah, yes; and their influence has come over your own soul. Not long since, when you went bending to the earth, oppressed, and weary with life's manifold sorrows; when dark clouds have hovered over you, and blackness of darkness covered you; when you were ready to yield in despondency the pursuit of happiness, and give yourself up to unmitigated gloom; when no object of life seemed desirable, and even the friendships of earth were worthless in your eyes; when you would fain have passed the companion of your childhood, unnoticed, as you met him in the way, - O, you can tell how, in such an hour, the sound of a cheerful voice, one pleasant word, has dispelled the gloom, and given you to the world again—a man—a hopeful, trusting man.