SECRET OF THE CHARM OF FLOWERS 155 



alterations, mainly verbal, as it appeared originally : 

 something now remains to be added. 



When writing about the wild flowers of West 

 Cornwall in a work on The Land's End (1908), I 

 returned to the subject of the charm of flowers 

 due to their human colouring, and will repeat here 

 much of what was there said. 



Some of the readers of my flower chapter were 

 not convinced that I had made out my case : it 

 came as a surprise to them, and in some instances 

 they cherished views of their own which they did 

 not want to give up. Thus, two of my critics, 

 writing independently, expressed their belief that 

 flowers are precious to us and seem more beautiful 

 than they are, because they are absolutely un- 

 related to our human life with its passions, sorrows, 

 and tragedies — because, looking at flowers, we are 

 taken into, or have glimpses of, another and brighter 

 world such as a disembodied spirit might find itself 

 in. It was nothing more than a pretty fancy ; 

 but I had other more thoughtful critics, and during 

 my correspondence with them I became convinced 

 of a serious omission in my account of the blue 

 flower, when I said that its expression was due 

 to association with the blue eye in man. The 

 strongest of my friendly adversaries informed me 



