54 USE AND APPLICATION OF FLOWERS. 



and power, manifested in the adornment, splendor, and 

 formation, of even the simplest flower of the field. I 

 would not arrogate for man an exclusive right, or make 

 him generally the sole consideration of the beneficence 

 of Providence ; but there are influences, which his 

 reason can alone perceive, incitements to good thoughts 

 and worthy actions. 



Flowers, in all ages, have been made the representa- 

 tives of innocence and purity. We decorate the bride, 

 and strew her path with flowers : we present the unde- 

 filed blossoms, as a similitude of her beauty and un- 

 tainted mind; trusting that her destiny through life will 

 be like theirs, grateful and pleasing to all. We scatter 

 them over the shell, the bier, and the earth, when we 

 consign our mortal blossoms to the dust, as emblems of 

 transient joy, fading pleasures, withered hopes ; yet rest 

 in sure and certain trust that each in due season will 

 be renewed again. All the writers of antiquity make 

 mention of their uses and application in heathen and 

 pagan ceremonies, whether of the temple, the banquet, 

 or the tomb the rites, the pleasures, or the sorrows of 

 man ; and in concord with the usages of the period, 

 the author of the " Book of Wisdom" says, " Let us 

 crown ourselves with rose-buds and flowers before they 

 wither." All orders of creation, " every form of creep- 

 ing things and abominable beasts," have been, perhaps, 

 at one time or another, by some nation or sect, either 

 the objects of direct worship, or emblems of an invisible 

 sanctity ; but though individuals of the vegetable world 

 may have veiled the mysteries, and been rendered sacred 

 to particular deities and purposes, yet in very few in- 

 stances, we believe, were they made the representatives 

 of a deified object, or been bowed down to with divine 

 honors. The worship of the one true Being could never 

 have been polluted by any symbol suggested by the open 

 flowers and lily-work of the temple. 



The love of flowers seems a naturally implanted pas- 

 sion, without any alloy or debasing object as a motive : 

 the cottage has its pink, its rose, its polyanthus ; the 

 villa, its geranium, its dahlia, and its clematis: we 

 cherish them in youth, we admire them in declining 



