OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



precious stones and woman. These are 

 the ornaments of our planet. Yet but 

 for the last three, which belong to the 

 same smile of nature, how grave, aus- 

 tere, almost sad, would be the educa- 

 tion of our eye without the softness 

 which the flowers give ! Suppose for a 

 moment that our globe knew them not : 

 a great region, the most enchanted in 

 the joys of our psychology, would be 

 destroyed, or rather would not be dis- 

 covered. All of a delightful sense would 

 sleep for ever at the bottom of our 

 harder and more desert hearts and in 

 our imagination stripped of worshipful 

 images. The infinite world of colours 

 and shades would have been but incom- 

 pletely revealed to us by a few rents in 



