Primula veris . . .
Campanula rotundifolia .
Now we can only have an idea of what we lost, when Christian unity was destroyed, through knowing how spontaneous and common was formerly the expression of it in human affairs. It is always in the trivial, the common-place, that our habits and convictions can best be measured, and the flowers named above were once called Our Lady's Keys, Our Lady's Thimble, Mary's Candle, Our Lady's Pin Cushion. Suddenly, like a dream ending, we begin to appreciate how terrible, how unbridged, is the distance separating us from medieval piety. We are complex and muddled, uncertain of our postulates or allegiance. It takes an entirely different view of things to see in the shape of a leaf a mirror wherein Our Lady may have gazed.