16 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 



poet, " and Solomon, in all his wisdom never 

 taught more wholesome lessons than these 

 silent monitors convey to a thoughtful mind 

 and an understanding heart." " There arc 

 two books," says SIR THOMAS BROWNE, " from 

 whence I collect my divinity ; besides that 

 written one of God, another of His servant, 

 nature, that universal and public manuscript 

 that lies expanded unto the eyes of all. Those 

 who never saw Him in the one have discovered 

 Him in the other. This was the scripture and 

 theology of the heathens ; the natural motion of 

 the sun made them more admire Him than its 

 supernatural station did the children of Israel; 

 the ordinary effects of nature wrought more 

 admiration in them, than in the other all his 

 miracles. Surely the heathens knew better 

 how to join and read these mystical letters, than 

 we Christians, who cast a more careless eye on 

 these common hieroglyphics, and disdain to 

 suck divinity from the flowers of nature." 



" Flowers," says MR. PHILLIPS, " formed a 

 principal feature in symbolical language, which 

 is the most ancient, as well as the most natural, 



