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[3] [4]
[5] [6] [7] [8]
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* * * * * * **
“In 532, Saint Médard, bishop of Noyon, established the rosières. His
sister was crowned at Salency, the birthplace of the institution – being the
first who enjoyed the honor.
“Heavens!” exclaimed I one day to the learned
author of this three-canto poem, “The Art of raising Roses,” “ can you
tell me why the rose was selected as the reward of virtue? Was not such honor
due rather to the violet, or to the lily?”
“Fair Ægle,” said the poet, in reply, “it has
been found that virtue herself needs ornament; and hence they have chosen the
rose, which is the flower of beauty.”
[The MS. of the Rose stops with the
eighteenth century. But the reader will not be wholly deprived of the sequel to
these interesting memoirs. There is every reason to believe, that the rose
emigrated during the Revolution. She returned to France in the time of the
Directory. Barras removed her name from the list of the emigrants. We have
found, among her papers, notes and documents which enable us to resume the
narrative, and to give the varied incidents of her life, from the year VII. Of
the French Republic to the present time.] |
