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. 



