CHRYSANTHEMUMS 

 or less narrow, all more or less ridi- 

 culous. 



It is thus that man acquires nearly all 

 his riches. There is nothing that is pue- 

 rile in nature ; and he who becomes im- 

 passioned of a flower, a blade of grass, 

 a butterfly's wing, a nest, a shell, wraps 

 his passion around a small thing that 

 always contains a great truth. To suc- 

 ceed in modifying the appearance of a 

 flower is insignificant in itself, if you 

 will; but refle6l upon it for however 

 short a while, and it becomes gigantic. 

 Do we not violate, or deviate, pro- 

 found, perhaps essential and, in any 

 case, time-honoured laws? Do we not 

 exceed too easily accepted limits? Do 

 we not direftly intrude our ephemeral 



