THYME....Activity.

Among the ancient Greeks, Thyme denoted the graceful elegance of the Attic style; because it covered Mount Hymettus, and gave an aromatic flavour to the honey made there. Those writers who had mastered the Attic style were said "to smell of Thyme." Flies of all shapes, beetles of all hues, bright butterflies, and vigilant bees for ever surround the flower tufts of Thyme, and they thus seem to teem with life. Activity is a warlike virtue, and is ever associated with true courage. On this notion, the ladies of the days of chivalry embroidered on the scarfs which they presented to their knights the figure of a bee hovering about a sprig of Thyme.

I am not old, though years have cast
Their shadows on my way;

I am not old,—though youth has passed,
On rapid wings away.

For in my heart a fountain flows,
And round it pleasant thoughts repose;
And sympathies, and feelings high,
Spring like stars on evening's sky.

Park Benjamin.

The thrifty Thyme a home can find,

Where smiles the sun, and breathes the wind.

Mrs. Hale.

Take the instant way;

For honour travels in a strait so narrow,

Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path;
For emulation hath a thousand sons,

That one by one pursue: if you give way,
Or edge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an entered tide, they all rush by,

And leave

you

hindmost.

The keen spirit

Shakspeare.

Seizes the prompt occasion,—makes the thought Start into instant action, and at once

Plans and performs, resolves and executes.

Hannah More.

Come, I have learned, that fearful commenting
Is laden servitor to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and snail-paced beggary.
Then fiery expedition be my wing,

Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king!
Go, muster men: my counsel is my shield:
We must be brief, when traitors brave the field.

Shakspeare.

Rouse thee! wake thy soul from sadness;

Fail not in the eager strife!

See around the bright earth's gladness,—
All activity and life!

Peerbold.

HOLLYHOCK....Ambition.

We have few flowers that contribute more to the ornamenting of large gardens than the Hollyhock, which, from its towering height and seeming love of display, is the emblem of ambition. The flowers are of all hues, from a blackish-purple to a faint white, and, though very beautiful, are without fragrance. They give gayety to the shrubbery until a late season of the year, throwing out a succession of flowers till the arrival of frost.

Yet, press on!

For it shall make you mighty among men ;
And, from the eyrie of your eagle thought,
Ye shall look down on monarchs. Oh! press on!
For the high ones and powerful shall come
To do you reverence; and the beautiful
Will know the purer language of your soul,
And read it like a talisman of love.
Press on! for it is godlike to unloose
The spirit, and forget yourself in thought.

Willis.

To the expanded and aspiring soul,
To be but still the thing it long has been,
Is misery, e'en though enthroned it were
Under the cope of high imperial state.
Joanna Baillie.

Ay,—father!—I have had those earthly visions And noble aspirations in my youth,

To make my own the mind of other men,
The enlightener of nations: and to rise
I knew not whither—it might be to fall;
But fall, even as the mountain cataract,
Which having leapt from its more dazzling height,
Even in the foaming strength of its abyss,
Lies low but mighty still.—But this is past,
My thoughts mistook themselves.

I loved to hear the war-horn cry,

Byron.

And panted at the drum's deep roll;
And held my breath, when-flaming high—
I saw our starry banners fly,

As, challenging the haughty sky,
They went like battle o'er my

For I was so ambitious then,

soul;

I burned to be the slave—of men.

John Neal.

Know thou ambition is a restless flame,

Which ever strives to reach the high-placed stars!

Peerbold.

Ambition takes a thousand shapes among
Our race of Time's most valued toys, and yet
In court, in camp, in school, and mid the buzz
Of
eager trade her spirit is the same.

C. Watson.

LAUREL.... Glory.

Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, the Laurel was consecrated to every species of glory. The beautiful shrub grows abundantly at Delphi, on the banks of the river Peneus. There its aromatic and evergreen branches shoot up to the height of the loftiest trees; and it is alleged that, by means of some secret virtue, they avert lightning from the spots which they adorn.

According to ancient fable, Daphne was the daughter of the river Peneus. Apollo fell in love with her, but she, preferring virtue to the love of the most eloquent of the gods, fled, in order to avoid the seducing magic of his words. Apollo pursued, and was on the point of overtaking her, when the nymph invoked her father, and was changed into a Laurel. The god, finding that he clasped an insensible tree in his arms, kissed its bright leaves. "Since thou canst not be my spouse," said he, "thou shalt, at least, be my tree." Thenceforward the Laurel was sacred to Apollo.

Ambition! ambition! I've laughed to scorn

Thy robe and thy gleaming sword;

I would follow sooner a woman's eye,
Or the spell of a gentle word.

But come with the glory of human mind,
And the light of the scholar's brow,
And my heart shall be taught forgetfulness,
And alone at thy altar bow.

Willis.