ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE. The Nightshade strews, to work him ill. DRAYTON. HAUGHTY daughter of the sun, Who, in shelter'd close abode, Thou wert, like thy father, bright; Ah! not thine alone the spell ; There is peril everywhere! In the shadiest walks of life, LET not the idle and the ignorant scoff at him who devotes an unemployed hour, no calling left, no duty broke," to investigate a moss, a lichen, a beetle, or a shell, in “ ways of pleasantness and in paths of peace." They are all the formation of Supreme Intelligence, for a wise and worthy end, and may lead us by gentle steps and degrees to a faint notion of the powers of Infinite Wisdom. KNAPP. Он! how canst thou renounce the boundless store Of charms, which Nature to her votary yields ! * * * Oh, how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven? BEATTIE. RAGGED HOARY EVERNIA. (LICHEN.) SOME are reddish, some brown, some grey, and some black, And they're pucker'd, edged, button'd, or fringed front and back; Some are lying like leather, close under your feet, Some waving from trees, in the forest you'll meet. MISS TWAMLEY. As in the wood, where leathery lichens weave Decay beneath the branches once their own. MRS. C. SMITH. In the vegetable world, as in all other parts of creation, ample scope is found for the exercise of the reasoning faculties, and abundant sources are supplied of intellectual enjoyment. To discriminate the different characters of plants, amidst the infinite diversity of shape, of colour, and of structure which they offer to our observation, is the fascinating occupation of the botanist. ROGET. LET us seek in grove and field, What food for wonder, what for use they yield; Some just remark from Nature's people bring, And some new source of homage for her King. CRABBE. In this wide field of wonders, can you find SIR R. BLACKMORE. 1712, RED POPPY. FULL-BLOWN Poppies overcharged with rain, POFE. PLEASURES are like poppies spread,- A moment white-then melts for ever! BURNS. SLEEP is a god too proud to wait in palaces, His Poppy grows among the corn. AND thou, by pain and sorrow blest, Conceal'st beneath thy scarlet vest, Contrasting with the cornflower blue; COWLEY. Autumnal months behold thy gauzy leaves Bend in the rustling gale amid the tawny sheaves. MRS. C. SMITH. |