CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 109 



same great and good cause : and to the authoress of The Moral of 

 Flowers, as likewise to her whose pen and pencil have produced 

 The Romance of Nature, do we return our cordial thanks for what 

 they have done and are doing, 



" Blessings be with them, and eternal praise, 

 Who gave us nobler loves and nobler cares." 



After this preface we must confine ourselves to the works imme- 

 diately before us, and, as in duty bound, first pay our respects to 

 the lady. 



Of all romances commend us to The Romance of Nature ! 'Tis 

 like the landscape, " ever charming, ever new ;" and what but a 

 romance on the grandest scale is carried on every year on the 

 stage of the earth, the agency being all of a supernatural kind.'* 

 And who but such observers as Miss Twamley could detect the se- 

 cret character of the performers under their many-coloured garb and 

 occasional disguises, and explain them as they pass to the other less 

 attentive spectators ? She is worthy of the appointment of priestess 

 in the court of Flora, or to be made mistress of the ceremonies on 

 levee and grand gala days ; for she not only instructs each one that 

 is successively presented to the goddess what to say, but takes care 

 that they are properly attired and dressed for the ha})py occasion. 

 She has arrayed each in the colours which best become the delicate 

 beauties, and has been particularly careful that there should be no- 

 thing artificial about them, but that each should appear strictly na- 

 tural. Hear what she says on this point ; — 



" Of the plates (on which authors usually compliment the artists), / can 

 say nothing, but that they have been carefully engraved after my own draw- 

 ings, which drawings were invariably made fi-om Nature. I have never been 

 guilty of curving a stem on my paper which I found growing straight in the 

 field, or of magnifying a flower for the sake of the gay effect. My models 

 always appear to me too perfect in their beauty for me to dream of doing 

 aught but attempt to copy, faithfully as I can, their various forms and 

 colours : invention here must be positive error, and I anxiously strive to 

 avoid that fault, however I may sin against the laws of picturesque effect or 

 elegant arrangement." / 



We hope the result, as seen in the beautiful plates which adorn 

 this volume, will have the proper effect on our flower painters, and 

 prevent them attempting to improve upon Nature, or being guilty 

 of such " wasteful and ridiculous excess'' as that of painting " the 

 lily*' otherwise than it really appears. Nor is she less truly natural 

 when she exchanges the pencil for the pen. No one can read her 

 introductory lines, entitled " Flowers," without feeling that they 

 contain 



'* All her impassion'd heart's fond communings." 



" Beautiful, even in its error, seems 

 The pagan offering of flowers as gifbs 

 To the Almighty Power : for what so fair. 



