CHAPTER V. 



THE HAWTHORN. 



The changeableness of earthly things has been 

 always a favourite and a fruitful theme, alike with 

 the worldly moralist and the more spiritual in- 

 structor. The mutations of vegetable life, in par- 

 ticular, appear to have presented an obvious lesson, 

 known and read of all men. The pagan Homer 

 could tell us — 



Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, 

 Now green in youth, now withering on the ground. 



Holy scripture abounds with sublime and touch- 

 ing allusions to the same affecting memento of 

 life's transitory bloom. Who has not felt the 

 thrilling power of those words, so appropriately 

 introduced in our funeral service, — " Man that is 

 born of a woman is of few days, and full of trou- 

 ble ; he cometh forth and is cut down like a flower." 



