APRIL. 109 



sentiments and affections. There is a very larg-e class of men, we 

 fear they constitute an overwhelming majority, who judge of every 

 thing by its market or exchangeable value, and whose motto is Cui 

 bono ? or, " What is it worth ?" Wo be to the community which 

 has not in it a cui- bono school, but equally dangerous is a state of 

 society which measures every thing by its money value. What we 

 plead for is, that a proper balance should be maintained between the 

 sensual and the mental, between conventional and popular estimates 

 of what is good, and that which is so from age to age in the arrange- 

 ments of divine Providence. It is our duty, prescribed by natural 

 laws and by revelation, to care for the mind as well as the body, to 

 lay up treasures in the heart and the intellect, as well as in the store- 

 house which is to supply our physical wants. Many things assist 

 us in this, but perhaps nothing more so than the innocent yet highly- 

 wrought beauties of vegetable life. Their faultless symmetry, their 

 brilliant colours, their various forms, and their delicious odours, all 

 teach us that God bestows His skill on that which has no direct 

 reference to mere corporeal wants ; and that man cannot, without 

 peril to his best interests, refuse to admire and study the handy- 

 work of his Maker. As articles of food only, where is the necessity 

 that vegetable productions should be so profusely adorned } That 

 they are so, is a loud call upon us to stand still in the midst of the 

 bustle of business, and lend an attentive ear to the lessons taught us 

 by the lilies and other flowers of the fields. The following lines, from 

 a little poem called The Pleading of the Flowers, will illustrate our 

 meaning. A florist is supposed to have resolved to give up garden- 

 ing because it is unprofitable, and the flowers plead in the following 

 way : 



" Has the babe in the cradle no hold 



On your heart e'en before it can prattle? 



Must a long list o^ profits be told 



Ere you give it a pop-gun and rattle ? 



Since men are but babes overgrown, 



You should blush like the rose but to own 

 That with profitless flowers you battle! 



You spurn not the sky of deep blue 



Because it no profit can yield ; 

 Then be to your heart ever true. 



And love us in garden and field. 

 ' By the skill which has painted your skin, 

 By the bright flowing honey within, 

 I will ever esteem it a sin 



Not to love you in garden and field !'" 



Henry Burgess. 



