THE RANUNCULUS. 215 



points of the brilliant type : it is there that our at- 

 tention is directed to the lilies of the field, with a 

 special reference to their beautiful attire, as the 

 providential allotment of God. There it is, that 

 the flower is set forth, as a touching emblem alike 

 of man's goodliness and his decay, while the hea- 

 vens are made to declare the glory of God, and 

 every element to furnish soma vivid illustration of 

 His power and love. In fact, when two people 

 conrie to investigate the same subject, under the 

 same teacher, and with feelings just similar, even 

 though they hold no previous communication one 

 with another, still they can hardly do otherwise 

 than fall occasionally into the same train of 

 thought ; and, in the paucity of words to convey 

 the multitude of ideas, to use expressions very 

 similar. I never aspired to originality, because I 

 should be unwilling to think that none had trodden 

 the path of flowers with feelings as delicious as 

 are mine, when revelling in the garden sweets : 

 but, as another friend to whom I repeated the re- 

 mark of the former, told me she had heard it made 

 by many, I take this method of assuring all my 

 kind readers, upon my honest word, that I never 

 read Hervey's work until this very day ; conse- 

 quently, I am not a plunderer. 



But, liad not the good-humoured hint of my 

 friend led me to examine Hervey, I should have 

 committed myself, irretrievably, in the opinion of 



