18 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS 



" The lotus flower, whose leaves I now 



Kiss silently, 



Far more than words can tell thee how 

 I worship thee." MOORE. 



This may be considered by some of our readers 

 a fanciful theory, but surely it has as good 

 foundations for its support, as many an hypo- 

 rnesis which has obtained universal approbation 

 and credit. 



" When nature laughs out in all the triumph 

 of spring, it may be said, without a metaphor 

 that, in her thousand varieties of flowers, we 

 see the sweetest of her smiles ; that, through 

 them, we comprehend the exultation of her 

 joys : and that, by them, she wafts her songs 

 of thanksgiving to the heaven above her, which 

 repays her tribute of gratitude with looks of 

 love. Yes, flowers have their language. Theirs 

 is an oratory, that speaks in perfumed silence, 

 and there is tenderness, and passion, and even 

 the light-hearted ness of mirth in the variegated 

 beauty of their vocabulary. To the poetical 

 mind, they are not mute to each other ; to the 

 pious, they are not mute to their Creator. . . . 



