THE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 123 



those of cold and cloudy lands; there, nature lavishes her beauties 

 with a tenfold profusion and loveliness, the blood flows more 

 freely in the veins, and the hearts of men beat with a warmer en- 

 thusiasm. The royal garden of an eastern prince is called the 

 " Garden of God," a name which is usually supposed to refer to the 

 Garden of Eden, and a promise adapted to the love of nature and of 

 virtue. To the faithful follower of the Prophet, the Koran promised 

 greetings of "good tidings, gardens through which rivers flow, and 

 ye shall remain therein for ever." 



From the first dawning of the world, the love of flowers has grown 

 within the heart of humanity, and, to woman, has been a life-like 

 consolation, and a hope, steadfast and true. Our first mother, when 

 breathing out her life in a long dream of joy in that happy garden, 

 fresh and fair from the hands of God, as a bud laved by unsunned 

 drops of silver dew, communed with the forms of loveliness which 

 lent their charms to beautify her happy home ; and flowers, as visible 

 symbols of purity and holiness, were endeared to her in deep and 

 passionate love, and she breathed out her soul in harmony with their 

 hallowed perfume. But, oh ! what pain and torture for her heart 

 when, as the requiting of her own sin, with the sole companion of 

 her bosom, she was banished from that abode of peace, to sojourn in 

 the plains and valleys of an unknown world ! "Well might her sor- 

 rowing heart pour out its woe in tears and vain regrets — 

 " Must I then leave thee, Paradise t thus leave 

 Thee, native soil! ^lese happy walks and shades, 

 Fit haunts of Gods ! 

 ******* 



O flowers, 

 That never will in other climates grow ; 

 My early visitation, and my last 

 At even, which I bred up with tender hand 

 From the first opening buds, and gave ye names : 

 Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank 

 Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount?" 



Milton. 

 Such a love is in every woman's heart, and if unchecked, would 

 tend to the development of the highest social and domestic virtues, 

 and would secure, by a natural and unyielding bond, a recognition of 

 that ideal beauty, and personification of virtue, which is the per- 

 manent basis of all social comfort, and the unity of the highest in- 

 dividual and domestic relations. 



