XXXIV. LES JARDINS.

L. 1. _Secrets observateurs._ Prying into the secrets of nature.

L. 7. _les plaintives dryades._ Is this mere poetic diction, as when Byron writes: 'the palm, the loftiest _dryad_ of the woods,' _Island_, II, xi. 17. Though the garden described is one seen by a Frenchman of the eighteenth century, yet it is viewed with the eyes of a Greek pantheist.

L. 11. _fidèle._ True to nature.

L. 12. _Loin du bois, comme si...._ The uninverted order would be: 'Comme si Philomèle allait, loin du bois, chercher.'

L. 15. _dont le printemps s'honore_, which Spring boasts.