other circumstance connected with its history or character. It would be idle to swell this preface, and to seek 

 to give consequence to a trifle so light and airy as this, by indicating, in every instance, the reasons which led to 

 the selection of the emblems : these will present themselves readily to the mind of the reader. A few, and but a 

 few of them have been arbitrarily assumed, and this only from the necessity of giving sufficient range and variety 

 to this symbolic language. If this be an objection, it applies with equal force to spoken language. For, although 

 such of our words as are intended to convey the idea of sounds, seem to be manifest imitations of these sounds, 

 and ' echoes to the sense," as they have been happily called, yet, the far greater part of the words which com- 

 pose our language, have no such resemblance, and must have been necessarily and arbitrarily assumed, in the 

 first instance, as signs of the ideas to which they were applied, and gradually adopted by common consent as 

 expressive of those ideas. The adoption once made, whether in oral or emblematical language, the application 

 of these conventional signs becomes as easy and accurate, and the use as great, as if there were a natural and 

 inherent relation between the signs and the ideas which they represent ; all that is necessary being, that the pur- 

 pose of the sign be understood in the same way by all who use it. 



The quotations are designed as poetic translations of the several emblems to which they are respectively 

 applied. They are the language of the emblem rendered in verse : and, from the intrinsic beauty of most of 

 these quotations, may it not be added, that these are the flowers of poetry aptly employed in illustrating the 

 flowers of the earth ? Some of the lines are original contributions for this little work, and it is believed that they 

 will be found worthy of this association with established poets. In some instances answers are furnished ; these 

 may be tacitly made by returning a part of the same flower which has been presented. 



The first rude sketch of this little divertissement having been shown to a few young friends, copies were asked 

 and given, and one of these, in the course of last year, found its way to the press in Boston, where, it is under- 

 stood, a few copies were struck, with great neatness and beauty of type and paper. The circumstance is men- 

 tioned merely to explain to those who may possess those copies, the identity of the work, and to exempt the lady 

 who has amused herself in compiling it, from any original purpose of publication. Since the collection has been 

 enlarged, it has become KO irksome to meet the request for manuscript copies, that it has been found expedient to 

 call in the aid of the press to save the time and labour of transcription. This request for copies, and the circum- 

 stance of its having been thought worthy of publication in Boston, while the little work was as yet an embryon 

 bud, induce the belief that the more expanded and finished form which it has now taken, will make it not unac- 

 ceptable to those who are themselves in the spring-time of life, the season of flowers and sentiment. 



There are few little presents more pleasing to a Lady, than a bouquet of flowers ; and, if the donor be disposed 

 to give them greater significance, it will be easy, with this njanual before him, to make his selection in such a 

 way as to stamp intelligence and expression on a simple posy. 



This mode of communication may be carried even beyond the proper season of flowers, by the aid of an herba- 

 rium, in which flowers are preserved by simple pressure between the leaves of an album. Such an herbarium 

 would be an ornament to a parlour table, and would, moreover, encourage and facilitate the study of botany : in 

 promotion of which latter object, a botanical glossary has been added to the work. 



The Lady who has given her leisure hours to this little play of fancy, has not the vanity to attach any serious 

 consequence to it. The Itagatelh, she trusts, is too light to attract the grave censure of the critic by profession. 

 It has been an innocent recreation to herself; and it is with no higher expectation than of affording the like 

 amusement to others, that it is now given to the prese. 



Baltimore. 



