HERRICK'S HESPERIDES

There can be few among your subscribers who are unacquainted with the sweet lyric effusion of Herrick "to the Virgins, to make much of Time," beginning— "Gather you rose-buds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying; And this same flower, that smiles to-day, To-morrow will be dying." The following "Answer" appeared in a publication not so well known as the *Hesperides*. I have therefore made a note of it from *Cantos, Songs, and Stanzas*, &c., 3rd ed. printed in Aberdeen, by John Forbes, 1682. "I gather, where I hope to gain, I know swift Time doth fly; Those fading buds methinks are vain, To-…