34 REMARKS ON THE SHRUBBERY. 



heite,) who in the midst of the splendour of Paris, regretting 

 the simple beauty of his native island, sprang forward at the 

 unexpected sight of a banana tree in the Jardin des Plantes, em- 

 braced it, while his eyes were bathed in tears, and exclaiming 

 with a voice of joy, " Ah! tree of my country!" seemed, by a 

 delightful illusion of sensibility, to imagine himself for a moment 

 ' transported to the land which gave him birth. 



We seem as it were for an instant to go back to the delights 

 of infancy, when, on each succeeding spring, we visit the mea- 

 dows covered with cowslips, which afforded us so many happy 

 hours in childhood, as we formed balls of their blossoms. Then 

 the playful girl, bedecked with wreaths and necklaces of daisies, 

 led her little swain in chains formed of the milky flower stalks 

 of the dandelion ; but who at the sight of a butterfly burst the 

 brittle bonds and scampered away, to return, perhaps, a few 

 years after sighing, in fetters not so visible, but more binding. 



There is no part of nature's works more interesting than flow- 

 ers. They seem intended for the embellishment of the fair, and 

 for the ornament of the spot where they tread. Their sweet 

 perfumes have such influence over all our sensations, that in the 

 midst of flowering shrubs the most acute grief generally gives 

 way to sweetest melancholy. When our home and domestic 

 companions are encompassed by the shrubbery, our situation 

 approaches nearest to a terrestrial paradise. Is it not, then, 



" Strange, there should be found, 

 Who, self-imprisoned in their proud saloons, 

 Renounce the odours of the open field, 

 For the unscented fictions of the loom ; 

 Who, satisfied only with penciled scenes, 

 Prefer, to the performance of a God, 

 TV inferior wonders of an artist's hand ? 

 Lovely, indeed, the mimic works of art ; 

 But Nature's works far lovelier." 



Cowper. 



The shrubbery is to a rational mind a source of inexhaustible 

 delight and instruction, where each season brings new joy, and 

 every morning a fresh harvest of delightful sweets. Subjects 

 for new thoughts and contemplations prevent themselves to 

 our view, and even the most dreary months still supply cause of 

 admiration, and discover a world full of wonders; for, 



