The Flower Garden. 143 



VIIL 

 THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



God might have bade the earth bring forth 



Enough for great and small, 

 The oak-tree and the cedar-tree, 



Without a flower at all. 



He might have made enough, enough 



For every want of ours — 

 For luxury, medicine, and toil. 



And yet have made no flowers 



Our outward life requires them not- 

 Then wherefore have they birth ? 



To minister delight to man ; 

 To beautify the earth ; 



To comfort man — to whisper hope' 



■Whene'er hisfaith is dim ; 

 For whoso careth for the flowers, 



Will much more care for him.—Mary Howitt. 



I.-mTEODUCTOEY EEMAEKS. 



^E who loves not flowers, and grudges the 

 few square feet of soil which they are 

 grumblingly permitted to occupy in a cor- 

 ner of his garden, may skip over this 

 chapter. We give him our heartfelt pity ; 

 and to the wife or daughter, whose more re- 

 fined and elevated tastes have not allowed him to 

 devote his front yard to the cultivation of potatoes 

 and cabbages, we offer our thanks. 

 Had we room, we could prove even to the devotee 

 of literal utilitarianism, that the flower garden has its uses — 

 that lilies and dahlias have quite as important a mission in the 

 world as beets and carrots ; but we must forego the argu- 

 ments and illustrations which this course would call for, and 



