88 CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. 



a pleasure for which we know not how to 

 account; it is an admiration implanted in us 

 by the Great Maker for the most lovely of His 

 creations : 



" Go, mark the matchless workings of the power, 

 That shuts within the seed the future flower; 

 Bids these in elegance of form excel 

 In colour these, and those delight the smell ; 

 Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, 

 To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes." 



COWPER. 



Let the infant, peevish and fretful from suffering 

 under one of the many disorders to which infancy 

 is peculiarly liable, be shown a flower, and how 

 quickly will the tears be changed to smiles ; how 

 eagerly will he endeavour to obtain it, clapping 

 his little chubby hands, and crowing again with 

 excess of glee ; and when in possession of the 

 prize so much coveted, how will he strive, by 

 chuckling laughter, and broken lispings, to ex- 

 press his admiration, turning it round and round, 

 and viewing it on all sides, his eyes sparkling 

 the while, like the bubbles on a sun-lit foun- 

 tain : 



