as Geology
asserts, literally coeval with him; that its points of resemblance to
woman properly gave it place in the oldest mythology as the floral
type of the female godhead; that it was the earth-born reflection
of the morning star, and rose from the foam with it when the
Aphrodite-Astarte-Venus-Anadyomeno came to life; that, as the nearest
symbol of beautiful virginity expanding into womanhood and maternity, it
was appropriately allied to dawning life and light, and consequently to
the rosy Aurora and to blushing youth; and that finally, in withered
age, set around by sharp thorns, it is a striking likeness of wounding
death, yet from which new roses may spring--we should find that in a
knowledge of all these interchangable symbolisms lies a music and a
color, a perfume and a feeling, as of a perfectly satisfactory Thought.
Let it be observed that each of these rose-correspondences is directly
based on Nature, and that, to a mind familiar with the antithetic
identity of life and death, all are promptly soluble and mutually
convertible, as by mental-magic alchemy. There is a truth and
earnestness in them which, while stimulating the joyous sentiment, gives
to every allusion to the rose the value of genius, and not of accident
or the _chic_ of a 'happy idea.'

But with the rose there are a thousand beautiful objects all consecrated
by myth and legend, based on deeply-seated affinities, all reflecting
the solemn mystery of birth and death in unity, all expressing love and
pleasure, and all mutually convertible one into the other. All the
differently-named Venuses, yes, all the goddesses of ancient mythology,
are but _one_ Venus and one goddess--all gods blend in one Arch-Bel, or
'Belerus old,' of myriad names--he, the inscrutable Abyss,
self-developing into male and female--who is reflected again in every
object which springs from them. All mountains meet in 'the solemn
mystery of the guarded mount'--the lily teaches the same lessons as the
rose and the sea shell--each and all are seen in the light ark which
skims the waves, or floats high in heaven as the pearly-horned moon; and
then the dew of the morning and the foaming sea become the wine of life
and the honey of the flower, and they are found again in the
CUP. So on through all beautiful forms, whether of nature or of
the simpler creations of man--wherever we meet one, there, to the eye of
him who has studied the purely natural science of symbolism, is a full
gard