Phillips's Floral EmUms, 351 



foreign lands, the rose, in progressive stages, as expressive of 

 a growing love ; the white water-lily, of unsullied purity ; or 

 the pomegranate, as the emblem of fertility; these, and many 

 such, they might have received graciously, and Mr. Phillips 

 might even have exercised his fancy in imagining new associa- 

 tions, so long as they were neither merely arbitrary, nor, in 

 themselves, contradictory to the beauty and beneficence of 

 nature. So long as the emblems he offered had a meaning 

 and a grace, they might have been favourably received ; but 

 the majority of them appear to possess neither of these re- 

 quisites. Disdain is to be expressed by the Yellow Carnation : 

 Mr. Phillips does not tell us why ; but goes on to speak of the 

 vanity of the Greeks, and the arbitrary power exercised by 

 their sultans, and ends with a quotation from Shakspeare, 

 which is equally irrelevant. Clematis is symbolical of Artifice; 

 for, " when artifice is innocently resorted to, for the purpose 

 of giving pleasure, it may be compared to the agreeable 

 fragrancy of the sweet Clematis." The comparison might 

 be made with any fragrant flower; and it is not, perhaps, 

 very often that artifice is "innocently resorted to." 'Th^Siin- 

 fiower is indicative of False Biches ,• because " gold of itself, 

 however abundant, cannot render a person rich, who is poor 

 in spirit." Indeed ! is wealth synonymous with magnanimity, 

 in Mr. Phillips's vocabulary ? It would be well if the want of 

 gold were equally powerless to make those poor, whose spirits 

 were not so. The Blackthorn represents Difficulty : " It is 

 difficult to penetrate, a thick fence of blackthorn ; some per- 

 sons make a difficulty of walking over a heath, others, who 

 mistake impossibilities for difficulties, can only be convinced 

 by conviction, which frequently comes too late." With the 

 Saffron is associated the phrase. Do not abuse, " Too liberal 

 a use of this cordial and stimulating flow^er is said to destroy 

 the reason, or cause the death, of those who indulge in it." It 

 may be my own dulness, but I do not see what reference the 

 following quotation has, either to the plant, or to the author's 

 mention of it : — 



" Some praise at morning, what they blame at night. 

 But always think the last opinion right.'* 



Neither do I find any sufficient reason for making the delicate 

 Privet the emblem of Defence (the Holly would be a stouter 

 one); the Marjoram, o^ Bluster ; the Osier, o^ Frankness; the 

 Cereus (one of the most beautiful of flowers), o^ HoiTor, Here 

 I come to another objection, and a grave one : why does Mr. 

 Phillips seek to associate flowers, which naturally present agree- 

 able images to the mind as well as to the eye, with such ideas as 



