98 CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. 



" We tread on flowers, flowers meet our every glance, 

 It is the scene, the season of romance, 



The very bridal of the earth and sky/' 



JOSIAH CONDOR. 



MRS. HEMANS, in one of her letters to a friend, 

 says : " I really think that fine passion for 

 flowers is the only one which long sickness 

 leaves untouched with its chilling influence. 

 Often during this weary illness of mine, have I 

 looked upon new books with perfect apathy, 

 when if a friend has sent me a few "flowers, my 

 heart has leaped up to their dreamy hues and 

 odours, with a sudden sense of renovated child- 

 hood, which seems to me one of the mysteries 

 of our being." How many instances might be 

 quoted to show the prevalence of this mysterious 

 feeling. How often, when the frame has become 

 worn out by disease, and while the sufferer was 

 calmly awaiting the approach of death ; when 

 all the joys, sorrows, hopes, and fears of mor- 

 tality have faded away, even as a dream, from 

 the memory, the scenes and circumstances of 

 childhood, forgotten amid the turmoil of stormy 

 passions and painful anxieties, have arisen 



