of the Severn: he complained of the cruelty of the lovely Anabella,
and told his fond tale to the waters of that impetuous stream, which
hurried along regardless of his plaints. He gathered the lilies of
the field; but the lilies were not so fair as his Anabella, nor the
fragrance of the blushing rose so sweet as her breath; the lambs were
not so innocent, nor the sound of the tabor on the green half so
melodious as her voice. Time, however, has joined Florio and Anabella
in the fetters of wedlock, and the plaints of the swain are changed.
The delusion of the enchantment is vanished, and what he but lately
considered as the only object worthy of his sublunary pursuit, he now
contemplates with coolness, indifference, and disgust: enjoyment has
metamorphosed the rose into a nettle.
Ernestus, contrary to his inclinations, was compelled by his parents
to marry the amiable Clara, whose sense, tenderness, and virtues, soon
fixed the heart of the roving Ernestus; and what at first gave him pain
and disgust, by degrees became familiar, pleasing, and delightful. Here
the nettle was changed to the rose.
The wandering libertine, who pursues the rose through the unlawful
paths of love, who tramples on every tender plant that comes within his
reach, and who roves from flower to flower, like the bee, only to rob
it of its sweets, will at last lose his way; and, when benighted, be
compelled to repose on the restless bed of wounding nettles.
The blooming rose is an utter stranger to the regions of Ambition,
where gloomy clouds perpetually obscure the beams of the joyful sun;
where the gentle zephyrs never waft through the groves, but discordant
blasts are perpetually howling, and where the climate produces only
thorns and nettles.
The rose reaches its highest perfection in the garden of Industry,
where the soil is neither too luxuriant, nor too much impoverished.
Temperance fans it with the gentlest breezes, and Health and
Contentment sport around it. Here the nettle no sooner makes its
appearance, than the watchful eye of Prudence espies it; and, though it
may not be possible totally to eradicate it, it is never suffered to
reach to any height of perfection.
Since then human life is but a garden, in which weeds and flowers
promiscuously shoot up and thrive, let us do what we can to encourage
the culture of the rose, and guard against the spreading nettle.
However barren may be the soil that falls to our lot, a careful and
assiduous culture will contribute not a little to make the garden, at
least, pleasing and cheerful.
[Illustration: FINIS]
Printed by J. Swan, 76, Fleet Street.
Transcriber's Notes:
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced
quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Occasional occurrences of the archaic long "s" (printed as "f") have
been replaced with the modern "s".
Occasional missing periods and opening or closing quotation marks
remedied.
Page 95: "Though her visitors did not look" was printed as "visiters",
but was changed here for consistency with other occurrences of
"visitor" or "visitors" in this text.
Page 97: "spised" probably should be "despised".
End of Project Gutenberg's The Blossoms of Morality, by Richard Johnson