PREFACE. xxi 



the temples, altars, and statues of our gods : that we crown our heads 

 with them in our festivals, and holy ceremonies ; that we scatter them 

 upon our tables, and our beds ; that we even consider the kinds of 

 flowers most agreeable to our divinities. Besides/ an agriculturist 

 should not neglect small profits ; whenever I send to the market of 

 Athens, wood, provision, or fruit, I add some baskets of flowers, and 

 they are seized instantly." 



In another part of the same work, the author describes 

 a marriage ceremony in the Island of .Delos, in which 

 flowers, shrubs, and trees make a conspicuous figure. He 

 tells us that the inhabitants of the island assembled at 

 day-break, crowned with flowers : that flowers were strewed 

 in the path of the bride and bridegroom : the house was 

 garlanded with them : singers and dancers appeared, 

 crowned with oak, myrtle, and hawthorns : the bride and 

 bridegroom were crowned with poppies ; and upon their 

 approach to the temple a priest received them at the en- 

 trance, presenting to each a branch of ivy, a symbol of 

 the tie which was to unite them for ever *. 



It was not in their sports only that the Greeks were so 

 lavish of their flowers : they crowned the dead with them ; 

 and the mourners wore them in the funeral ceremonies. 

 Flowers seem to have been to this tasteful people a sort 

 of poetic language, whereby they expressed the intensity 

 of feelings to which they found common language in- 

 adequate. Thus we find that their grief, and their joy, 

 their religion, and their sports, their gratitude, admiration, 

 and love, were alike expressed by flowers. 



And flowers do speak a language, a clear and intel- 

 ligible language : ask Mr. Wordsworth, for to him they 

 have spoken, until they excited " thoughts that lie too 

 deep for tears ;" ask Chaucer, for he held companionship 

 with them in the meadows ; ask any of the poets, ancient 

 or modern. Observe them, reader, love them, linger over 

 * Vol. vi. chapter 77. 



