Virgil Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830 edition. Excerpt: ...form a cup in the middle. These cups are supposed to contain the tears of the youth Narcissus. Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffodillies fill their cups with tears To strew the laureat herse where Lycid lies. Milton's Lycidas.--Martyn. 185 From the farina of flowers, which undergoes a certain process in the stomachs of the bees, the wax is manufactured. There is remarked a waxy substance on the flowers, to preserve, it would seem, the dust of the anthers from moisture, which would burst them prematurely.--Stawell. 191 The drones are the males. They are unprovided with stings: after fecundation they are expelled from the hive. To each his part; age claims th' intrusted care To rear the palace, and the dome repair; The young, returning homeward late at night, Droop with the thyme that loads their wearied flight. Where'er a willow waves, or arbute grows, 211 Or casia scents the gale, or crocus glows, Or hyacinth unfolds its purple hue, Flower, shrub, and grove, for them their sweets re-new. At once they labor, and at once repose; 215 Forth from their gates each morn the nation flows, And when pale twilight, from the rifled mead, Bids the tired race, o'ercharged with spoil, recede, They seek their roof, their drooping frame revive. They come, they crowd, they hum around the hive: Deep calm succeeds, each laid within his cell, 221 Where sleep and peace without a murmur dwell. If tempests lovv'r, or rushing Eurus sound, Secure they creep their city walls around, Sip the pure rill that near their portal springs, 225 And bound their wary flight in narrower rings; And oft with pebbles, like a balanced boat, Poised, through the air on even pinions float. Nor shall the bees the less thy wonder move, That none indulge the joys of mutual...