The Rose and the Amaranth 


  AN AMARANTH planted in a garden near a Rose-Tree, thus addressed
it:  "What a lovely flower is the Rose, a favorite alike with Gods
and with men.  I envy you your beauty and your perfume."  The Rose
replied, "I indeed, dear Amaranth, flourish but for a brief
season! If no cruel hand pluck me from my stem, yet I must perish
by an early doom.  But thou art immortal and dost never fade, but
bloomest for ever in renewed youth."