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.