STUDY XI. I27 



grow clofe to the ground, and expofed, as the 

 panfy, but their drapery is dufky and velvcted. 

 There are fome which receive the action of the 

 Sun when at a confiderable height, as the tulip ; 

 but Nature has taken her precautions fo exactly, 

 as to bring out this {lately flower only in the 

 Spring, to paint it's petals with ftrong colours, 

 and to daub the bottom of it's cup with black *. 



* This flower, from it's colour, is, in Perfia, the emblem of 

 perfect lovers. Chardin tells us, that, when a young Perfian 

 prefects a tulip to his miftrefs, it is his intention to convey to 

 her this idea, that, like this flower, he has a countenance all on 

 fire, and a heart reduced to a coal. There is no one Work of 

 Nature, but what awakens in man fome moral affection. The 

 habits of fociety infenfibly efface, at length, the fentiment of it ; 

 but we always find it in vigor among Nations who ftili live near 

 to Nature. 



Many alphabets have been imagined in China, in the earlier 

 ages, after the wings of birds, fifhes, (hells, and flowers : of thefe, 

 very curious characters may be feen in the China illuftrated of 

 Father Kercber. It is from the influence of thofe natural man- 

 ners, that the Orientals employ fo many fimilitudes and compa- 

 rifons in their languages. Though our metaphyfical eloquence 

 makes no great ufe of them, they frequently produce, never- 

 thelefs, a very linking effect. J. J. RouJJcau has taken notice 

 of that which the Ambaflador of the Scythians propofed to Da- 

 rius. Without fpeaking a word, he prefented him with a bird, 

 a frog, a moufe, and five arrows ■[•. Herodotus relates, that the 



f- Darius, at firft, undei flood this as a comple'e furrender of Scy- 

 thian indépendance into his hands 5 but the event inftrucled him, that 

 this high-i'phited people intended to convey a bold defiance: " Unleis 

 *' you can fly as a bird, dig as a mouie, i'wim as a frog, our arrows 

 « lhall reach you." H. H. 



fame 



