28 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 



nature or properties. But what a heresy is it 

 to call this system of arbitrary meanings the 

 "Language of Flowers;" what a departure 

 from that only true faith, the principal tenet of 

 which is a firm and fervent belief in the signifi- 

 cance of nature ! If God speaks in the elements 

 and who shall doubt ? if the winds, and the 

 waves, and the loud rattling thunders, testify of 

 his power and majesty, do not the forest trees 

 also, and the grasses of the fields, and the 

 beautiful blossoms which adorn like living 

 gems, the bosom of the earth, have not these 

 voices voices of instruction, and reproof, and 

 sympathy, and love, and "all that is most gentle 

 and benign ? Assuredly they have ! Let us 

 then look upon them not as the mere play- 

 things of an idle hour, as gauds and decora- 

 tions for the frivolous and vain, but as something 

 too sacred to be made the symbols of false 

 sentiments, and feigned, or evil passions. 



Truly the real-" Language of Flowers" is no 

 system of unmeaning similitudes ; there is a 

 deeper significance attached to every plant and 

 flower, indeed to every object in nature, than 



