The loves of the Nightingale and the Rose have been celebrated by the
Muses of many lands. An Eastern poet says "You may place a hundred
handfuls of fragrant herbs and flowers before the Nightingale; yet he
wishes not, in his constant heart, for more than the sweet breath of his
beloved Rose."
The Turks say that the rose owes its origin to a drop of perspiration
that fell from the person of their prophet Mahommed.
The classical legend runs that the rose was at first of a pure white,
but a rose-thorn piercing the foot of Venus when she was hastening to
protect Adonis from the rage of Mars, her blood dyed the flower. Spenser
alludes to this legend:
White as the native rose, before the change
Which Venus' blood did on her leaves impress.
_Spenser_.
Milton says that in Paradise were,
Flowers of all hue, and _without thorns the rose_.
According to Zoroaster there was no thorn on the rose until Ahriman (the
Evil One) entered the world.
Here is Dr. Hooker's account of the origin of the red rose.
To sinless Eve's admiring sight
The rose expanded snowy white,
When in the ecstacy of bliss
She gave the modest flower a kiss,
And instantaneous, lo! it drew
From her red lip its blushing hue;
While from her breath it sweetness found,
And spread new fragrance all around.
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