FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 231 
itself is nothing but a fancy, or, worse yet, 
a profanation. If the flowers could talk, 
who knows how earnestly they might depre- 
cate all such misguided attempts at doing 
them honor, —as if it were anything but 
a slander, this imputation to them of the 
foibles, or even the self-styled good quali- 
ties, of our poor humanity! What an egoist 
is man! I seem to hear them saying; 
look where he will, at the world or at its 
Creator, he sees nothing but the reflection 
of his own image. 
