Garden Thoughts-Love's Antidote.

“ Ερως γὰρ ἄργον καπι τοῖς ἀργοῖς ἔφυ.
φιλεῖ κάτοπτρα, καὶ κομής ξανθίσματα,
φεύγει δε μόχθους. --EURIP.

"Love is the passion of an indolent mind."-THEOPHRASTUS.
"Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus,

Contemptæque jacent et sine luce faces."-OVID.

"E pero leva su, vinci l'ambrascia,

Con l'animo che vinci ogni battaglia,

Il col suo grave corpo non s'accascia."-DANTE.
"Adfluit incautis insidiosus amor;

Desidiam puer ille sequi solet; odit agentes;
Da vacuæ menti quo teneatur opus:
Sunt fora sunt leges, sunt quos tuearis, amici,

Vade per urbanæ candida castra toga."-OVID.
Quam platanus vino gandet, quam populus undâ,
Et quam limosâ cama palustris humo,
Tam Venus otia amat : qui finem quæris amoris,
(Cedit amor rebus) res age, tutus eris.—OVID.

Vidi ego quod primo fuerat sanabile vulus

Dilatum longæ damna tulisse mora.-OVID.
Tu loca quæ nimium grata fuere, cave.-OVID.

Unhappy lovers, slaves of vain regret,
Behold the talisman for your distress
In toil; for Love was born of Idleness;
Upon a summer bank, with dewdrops wet,
With starry oxlip sprent, and violet
Blue-gleaming in a mirror he doth dress
His glowing locks to order'd loveliness :
On sport and play his very heart is set;
His labour, luxury and dalliance :
"Tis in unguarded moments he doth pass,
Still foe, into the bosom's citadel.

Beware his stratagems and snares; the dance,
The vacant mind, the wine-cup, and the glass;
And in its fortress safe the heart shall dwell.

CXCVII.

Garden Thoughts--Love's Shrine.

"Love sits on a despotic throne,

And reigns a tyrant, if he reigns at all."-BARBAULD.

"Rouse thyself, and the weak, wanton Cupid

Shall from your neck unloose his amorous hold,
And like a dewdrop from the lion's mane

Be shook to air."-SHAKESPEARE.

"Optimus ille fuit vindex lædentia pectus

Vincula qui rupit dedoluitque semel."-OVID.

Not while he builds his nest, the imperial bird
Feels his breast glow with fierce instinctive fire;
The soldier starts from languishing desire,
When the first cannon's distant boom is heard,
By other lust than love's, the merchant stirr'd,
Cheapens the tapestries of purple Tyre ;
Far other visionary dreams inspire

The cell of student poring o'er the word

Of the primeval sages--therefore shun

Leisure for Love will make himself no shrine

:

In minds that temple other Deities.

The whole heart's worship he demands, or none;
And like the "wandering voice," Spring's earliest sign,
Haunts but unpeopled shades, and in them sighs!

Garden Thoughts Fidelity.

“ ουκ έστ' ἑραστὴς ὅστις οὐκ ἄεν φιλέι.”

"Tu mihi curarum requies, in nocte vel atrâ Lumen."-TIBÚLLUS,

EURIPIDES.

"Difficile est subito longum deponere amorem."-Catullus. "Non mihi mille placent; non sum desultor amoris."-OVID,

"Certa e ben quella in un pudico cuor

Che per cangiar di scorza non fiera,

Ne langue e qui caparra il paradiso."MICHAEL ANGELO.

I know a flower that opes but when the Moon
Smiles on it from her silvery chariot way

Along the path of night: not brilliant day,
Fresh morn, nor dewy eve, nor burning noon,
Not timid April, nor hot passionate June,
Luscious July, nor rosy blushing May,
Can tempt it from its constancy to stray.

I know a heart that hath such priceless boon Of faithfulness in love: nor glance, nor smile, Nor kiss, nor sigh, when far its bosom's Queen, Can witch it from its loyal fealty;

But even day itself seems dark the while :
To other love ne'er hath it open'd been:
And if its Moon return not, closed shall die.

CXCIX.

Garden Thoughts The Indian Cupid.

"We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf."-SHAKESPEARE.

"Molle meum levibus cor est violabile telis"-OVID.

"E q'uindi uscimini, rivederi le stelli."-DANTE.

I see him now, a fair and lovely boy,
The God to whom the Hindu maidens sigh,
When with the lamp-lit lotus-boat they try
Their lover's truth, their freight of woe or joy.

Not blind, like Venus' son, he doth destroy
His victims, laughing with unbandaged eye :
Upon a green-wing'd parrot he doth fly;
With whose neck, purple-ring'd, he loves to toy.
Of tender sugar-cane his bended bow,

From which the juice hath not yet ceas'd to flow
Over his fingers, clammily; the string

Of bees, whose waxen thighs together cling;
Tipp'd all with different flowers, his stingless darts
Wound, without venom, when he pierceth hearts.

Garden Tthoughts- -Jealous Love.

"For there can be no death for our true love."-KÖRNER.
"In his stead let love for ever dwell!

Sweet love, that doth his golden wings embay
In blessed nectar and pure pleasure's well,
Untroubled of vile fear or bitter fell."-SPENSER.

"Te spectem suprema mihi cum venerat hora,

Te teneam moriens deficiente manu."-TIBULLUS.
"Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But braves it out even to the crack of doom."

"Felices ter et amplius

Quos irrupta tenet copula, nec malis
Divulsus querimoniis

Supremâ citius solvet amor die."-HORACE.
"Uxor, vivamus quod vivimus, et moriamur,
Servantes nomen sumpsimus in thalamo :
Nec ferat ulla dies ut commutemur in ævo,
Quin tibi sim juvenis, tuque puella mihi."

SHAKESPEARE.

AUSONIUS.

Mine be a jealous love, not the mean fear,
The pitiful distrust of thoughts, words, deeds,
Which on its own gross emanation feeds ;*
An insult to the being it calls dear;

No; be it from such base suspicion clear:
Yet mine be jealous love; the love that heeds
The noxious dews that rise or fall o'er meads;
The chilly breezes of the earlier year;

The fierce sun blazing in meridian pride;

Storm-brooding clouds; and household cares, that bend
The fair young brow, and break the heart of mirth;
Jealous of absence from the love'd one's side;
Jealous of Time, which all too soon must end
Our soul's communion, at least here on earth.

*

"The green-eyed monster,

Which makes the meat it feeds on."-SHAKESPEARE.