y spring up, as well as blow, in the course of their long
nights, during which the earth's resplendent disc is the most
conspicuous object in the heavens; which two facts stand, in the opinion
of the multitude, in the relation of cause and effect. Attributing,
then, the symbolical character of the rose to its tutelary planet, they
regard the earth in the same light as the ancients did the chaste Diana,
and believe that she plants this her favourite flower in the moon,
whenever she loses a votary. The priesthood encourage this superstition,
as they have grafted on it some mystical rites, which add to their power
and profit, and which one of our Pundits thinks has a great resemblance
to the Eleusinian mysteries. There is, however, my dear Atterley, little
satisfaction in tracing the origin of vulgar superstitions. They grow up
like a strange plant in a forest, without our being able to tell how the
seed found its way there. It is generally believed in the east, that the
moon, at particular periods of her revolution round the earth, has a
great influence in causing rain; though every one must see, that,
notwithstanding such influence must be the same in every part of the
earth, it is invariably fair in one place, at the very time that it is
rainy in another. Nay, we may safely aver that there is not a day, nor
an hour, in the year, in which it is not dry and rainy, cloudy and
clear, windy and calm, in hundreds of places at once."

I told the Brahmin that the same opinion prevailed in my country. That
the vulgar also believe the moon, according to its age, to have
particular effects on the flesh of slaughtered animals; and that all
sailors distinguish between a wet and a dry day, according to the
position of the crescent.

We then inquired of the warden of this flowery plain, if he had ever
remarked any difference in the number of roses which sprung up in a
given period of time. He said he thought they were more numerous about
five and twenty or thirty years ago, than he had ever seen them before
or since. With that exception, he said, the number appeared to be nearly
the same every year.

The Brahmin happening to be in one of those pleasant moods which are
occasionally experienced by amiable tempers, even when under the
pressure of sorrow and age, now amused himself in pointing out the
flowers which probably represented the different nations of the earth;
and when he saw any one remarkably small, pale and delicate, he in