“Glory to thee whose vivifying power
Pervades all Nature’s universal frame!
Glory to thee Creator Love! to thee,
Parent of all the smiling Charities,
That strew the thorny path of Life with flowers!
Glory to thee Preserver! to thy praise
The awakened woodlands echo all the day
Their living melody; and warbling forth
To thee her twilight song, the Nightingale
Holds the lone Traveller from his way, or charms
The listening Poet’s ear. Where Love shall deign
To fix his seat, there blameless Pleasure sheds
Her roseate dews; Content will sojourn there,
And Happiness behold Affection eye
Gleam with the Mother’s smile. Thrice happy he
Who feels thy holy power! he shall not drag,
Forlorn and friendless, along Life’s long path
To Age’s drear abode; he shall not waste
The bitter evening of his days unsooth’d;
But Hope shall cheer his hours of Solitude,
And Vice shall vainly strive to wound his breast,
That bears that talisman; and when he meets
The eloquent eye of Tenderness, and hears
The bosom-thrilling music of her voice;
The joy he feels shall purify his Soul,
And imp it for anticipated Heaven.”
[8] In the cabinet of the Alhambra where the Queen used to dress
and say her prayers, and which is still an enchanting sight, there
is a slab of marble full of small holes, through which perfumes
exhaled that were kept constantly burning beneath. The doors and
windows are disposed so as to afford the most agreeable prospects,
and to throw a soft yet lively light upon the eyes. Fresh currents
of air too are admitted, so as to renew every instant the delicious
coolness of this apartment.—_Sketch of the History of the Spanish
Moors, prefixed to Florian’s Gonsalvo of Cordova_.
[9] “The grave matron does not perceive how time has impaired her
charms, but decks her faded bosom with the same snow-drop that
seems to grow on the breast of the Virgin.”—P.H.
The Rose
Betwene the Cytee and the Chirche of Bethlehem, is the felde Floridus,
that is to seyne, the feld florisched. For als moche as a fayre Mayden
was blamed with wrong and sclaundred, that sche hadde don fornicacioun,
for whiche cause sche was demed to the dethe, and to be brent in that
place, to the whiche sche was ladd. And as the fyre began to brenne
about hire, she made hire preyeres to oure Lord, that als wissely as
sche was not gylty of that synne, that he wold help hire, and make it
to be knowen to alle men of his mercyfulle grace; and whanne she had
thus seyd, sche entered into the fuyer, and anon was the fuyer quenched
and oute, and the brondes that weren brennynge, becomen white Roseres,
fulle of roses, and theise weren the first Roseres and roses, bothe
white and rede, that evere ony man saughe. And thus was this Maiden
saved be the Grace of God.
_The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile_.
The Rose
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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