Oh! thou who dry'st the mourner's tear, The friends who in our sunshine live, Moore. Then bright from earth, amid the troubled sky, The world around me groweth gray and old: And when my children gather at my knee MacKellar. CHINA ASTER.... Variety. The China Aster. begins to blow when other flowers are scarce. It is like an afterthought of Flora's, who smiles at leaving us. The China Aster was introduced into Europe by Father d'Insarville, a Jesuit missionary; who, about the year 1730, sent seeds of it to the royal gardens of Paris. As, by cultivation, many varieties of the Aster have been obtained, the flower has been made the emblem of variety. The sleepless streams move onward Chiding the foolish flowers That watch their mirrored beauty; Who throng the halls of fashion. I love the ever-varying hue I would not have it always blue, I would not have wide oceans spread A mirror e'er to see; But lashed to many a cresty head Dawes. C. Watson. Play every string in love's sweet lyre— Be air, and dew, and light, and fire, To keep the soul-flower growing. Mrs. Osgood. The rapid and the deep—the fall, the gulf, Of sameness. Bailey. Youth loves and lives on change, Till the soul sighs for sameness; which at last Variety's the source of joy below, Bailey. From which still fresh revolving pleasures flow; In books and love the mind one end pursues, And only change the expiring flame renews. Gay. Wherefore did nature pour her bounties forth Milton. |