MORAL OF FLOWERS. 61 



dering the burden easier to bear. And by 

 making them participators in our grief, we lose 

 that painful sense of loneliness and desolation 

 which ever accompanies the blighting of our 

 earthly prospects, and consequent desertion of 

 friends, (falsely so called) ; our minds are in- 

 sensibly drawn to the contemplation of His 

 infinite goodness and mercy, who ordaineth all 

 things for the best, and suffereth not a sparrow 

 to fall to the ground, nor a hair of our heads 

 to perish, unnoted. 



We reflect on the many blessings He hath 

 vouchsafed us, all undeserving as we are, and 

 taught by the example of the Flowejs, whose 

 tiny hands are ever clasped in adoration, whose 

 breath is ever exhaled as an offering of praise 

 to the footstool of their Maker, we become re- 

 signed, nay, even cheerful, and prompted by 

 feelings of gratitude, our thoughts involuntarily 

 shape themselves into words of a like significa- 

 tion to the following : 



" flowers that breathe of beauty's reign, 



In many a tint o'er lawn and lea, 

 And give the cold heart onee again 

 A dream of happier infancy ; 

 (i 



