The Ursine Rose, or the Sun

always flourishing with a new progeny, may it bear the name of the URSINE ROSE, and may it inscribe the illustrious Stem of the URSINI family into the heavens with its own rays forever. I believe I am able to do this, both by the right of an INVENTOR, and by the demand of the DIGNITY OF THE URSINI HOUSE, and indeed with NATURE herself favoring and inviting me. For in whatever direction I look, I see everywhere that the SUN with the ROSE, or the URSINI FAMILY with the SUN AND ROSE, agree most beautifully; so that I believe that although they are different in condition, they are equal in character, and have entered into a secret friendship with one another. Although I do not take it upon myself here to compare these things individually, nor to violently twist those that resist into an imitation of similarity—the former would be a task longer than is right, and the latter would be a proven refuge for poverty—I shall compare them in two matters alone, which the consensus of all (as I believe) is about to approve with joyful murmurs.

The PRIOR is the marvelous SPLENDOR of the SUN, by which it paints and illuminates all mortal things, as if by applying some color; and it immediately renders things, from being formless and dark, beautiful and graceful. The LATTER is the HEAT of the SUN: which it spreads willingly and most liberally as far as the lands and seas lie open; and by this, it dispenses aid to all from a prodigal bosom. Nor does it regard only friends and those who are grateful; but, faithful to being born for benefits, it assists even the unmindful and the adverse: it is hostile only to owls and ill-omened eagle-owls. How often does it calm clouds that are already gathering and threatening? How often does it clear away, with its propitious heat, storms conspired for the destruction of cities? Indeed, its nature is beneficent, and ignorant of any malice. From this, I turn to the ROSE, the rival of the SUN: in whose COLOR, now reddening into purple, now vying with the whiteness of snow, there is nothing that the eyes may contemplate more pleasantly or more gratefully. The same [Rose], with its SCENT, by which it charms with the sweetest of all, triumphs over all the envy of fragrant Hybla and the blooming FLORA. Nor is this SCENT more sweet than it is healthy. It preserves that part which is most important in man; and, infused into the head, it restores the strength that labor had exhausted or illness had dulled; and where much damage encroaches upon the human race, it successfully disarms, with secret force, the drunkenness armed for slaughter original: "armatam in clades temulentiam". Order someone to remove this ROSE; from a most pleasant Rose-garden, you will return a deformed and naked thicket. Once the same [Rose] breaks its sheath, and begins again to shine forth from its calyx, you will believe the entire thorny place is a Rose-garden; you will believe the crude thorns are turning into painted shrubs; you will believe the horrid wilderness is becoming a mere paradise. Such is the grace that the SPLENDOR and HEAT of the SUN, and the COLOR and SCENT of the ROSE, can bring to mortal things.

Here I shall now fear, URSINE PRINCE, lest, if I say that the light of YOUR GENTILE