66 USE AND APPLICATION OF FLOWERS. 



pleasure in viewing it. The mind that is delighted 

 with such admiration, must be almost insensibly led 

 to an attendant pleasure, the contemplation, the 

 perception of infinite wisdom and power, manifested 

 in the adornment, splendour, and formation, of even 

 the simplest flower of the field. I would not arro- 

 gate for man an exclusive right, or make him gene- 

 rally the sole consideration of the beneficence of 

 Providence ; but there are influences, which his 

 reason can alone perceive, incitements to good 

 thoughts and worthy actions. 



Flowers, in all ages, have been made the repre- 

 sentatives of innocence and purity. We decorate 

 the bride, and strew her path with flowers : we 

 present the undefiled blossoms, as a similitude of 

 her beauty and untainted mind ; trusting that her 

 destiny through life will be like theirs, grateful and 

 pleasing to all. We scatter them over the shell, the 

 bier, and the earth, when we consign our mortal 

 blossoms to the dust, as emblems of transient joy, 

 fading pleasures, withered hopes ; yet rest in sure 

 and certain trust that each in due season will be 

 renewed again. All the writers of antiquity make 

 mention of their uses and application in heathen and 

 pagan ceremonies, whether of the temple, the ban- 

 quet, or the tomb the rites, the pleasures, or the 

 sorrows of man ; and in concord with the usages of 

 the period, the author of the "Book of Wisdom" 

 says, " Let us crown ourselves with rose-buds and 

 flowers before they wither." All orders of creation, 

 " every form of creeping things and abominable 



