314 



THE FLORIST. 



cultivated varieties of a natural flower would equally condemn 

 the diamond to remain in obscurity in the mine where God has 

 placed it, and would stigmatise the adventitious splendour it de- 

 rives from cutting and polishing at man's will as an interference 

 with nature. It may be — we know not ; but it is neither impossible 

 nor violently improbable — that before sin entered into the world, 

 when the earth gave forth her increase without labour, the flowers 

 may have spontaneously exhibited that standard of perfection, an 

 approach to which the florist now laboriously aims at drawing forth 

 from them. It may have been the same too with the harvest of the 

 field and the fruits of the orchard ; and that varieties of both, as 

 incomparably superior in kind as superabounding in quantity to any 

 thing we now see, may have been on their progress to maturity, to 

 call forth the thanksgiving of pure hearts, had those hearts continued 

 pure. And such may also be in store for a future period. But, in 

 the mean time, we know that labour is enjoined, and that not of the 

 hands alone, but of the brow ; an expression which seems to betoken 

 what is certainly true in fact, that, to obtain the riches of the soil, 

 a trial of mental skill is required on the part of man, a putting forth 

 of the resources of his intelligence, to overcome the reluctance of 

 nature to rise up to its capabilities. And whether his ingenuity be 

 exercised on the corn, on the fruit, or on the flower, it is rightly ex- 

 ercised ; and the results are additions to the sum of human pleasures 

 which the Creator himself has not thought beneath His care. 



Synopsis of the Essay on the Philosophy of Florists' Flowers, 



BEAUTY 



in a flower 



is produced" 



by 



r 



I. Form, 

 consisting of 



outlines, 

 general and 

 subordinate. 



II. Colour. 



1. Absolute, 

 requiring 



2. Relative. 



I. In General, 

 or separately, 



2. In Union ; 

 must be in jux- 

 taposition, and 

 mutually adapt- 

 ed; producing, 



f (1.) Unity : infringed in idea, by 



a plurality of equivalent parts. 



In outline, by intervals — by 

 <| abrupt changes. 

 (2.) Variety [effects of straight 



lines and curves] : Of form — 



of number — of colour. 



[Best dependent on characteristics 

 of the flower and mode of co- 

 ■{ louring. Actually, hemispheri- 

 cal the most perfect. Other 



[_ examples. 



/■ Must be, bright — distinct. 



(1.) Combination, if in natural 

 agreement. And this is, dis- 

 tinct, clouded, or compound. 



(2.) Contrast, if in natural con- 

 trariety. 



Comparison of the two modes. 



Province of Taste includes all not restricted by necessary laws of Nature. 



Iota. 



