Leading us back to Paradisean bowers.'


"Love and liberty are fast becoming mere abstractions to the
enlightened apprehension of some modern wise men. It is sad to see
how soon those white-winged visitors soil their plumage and change
their very nature by a mere descent into the philosophic atmosphere
of such mind. One is reminded of the words of Swedenborg--'I saw
a great truth let down from heaven into hell, and it THERE BECAME
A LIE.'

"This cynical objection to the lays of our minstrel, surely never
could have emanated from the heart of WOMAN. SHE is ever loyal
to love--that tender and yearning principle in the bosom of the
Father, from which and by which the feminine nature was created.

"The poems of Morris are indeed like those flowers of old, born of
the blood-drops which oozed from the wounded foot of the queen of
love--blushing crimson to the very heart; yet there is not, to my
knowledge, in the whole range of English literature, so large a
collection of amatory songs in which sensualism and voluptuousness
find no voice. These lays can bring to the cheek of purity no blush,
save that of pleasure--the mother may sing them to her child, the
bride to her young husband.

"'Festus' has an eloquent reply to such as hold love a theme unworthy
the true bard:--


'Poets are all who love--who feel great truths,