FLOWERS OF PLANTS. 69 



tribes, and other glorious flowers, as far as we know, 

 furnish to insects no supply, but expand, wither, 

 and die, unnoticed but by the eye of man alone. 

 Flowers that are grand, gay, cheerful or beautiful, 

 predominate infinitely over those that are of a sombre 

 hue or gloomy aspect. Employment and occupation 

 were as much the design, as they are found to be 

 essential to the happiness of human life : we are not 

 all constituted to soar in the higher regions of sci- 

 entific research ; our dispositions are as various as 

 our intellects. Horticulture was the first occupa- 

 tion instituted for man, and he cannot pursue a 

 more innocent and harmless employ : we were given 

 " every herb, and every tree upon the face of the 

 earth." For food, or raiment, the immediate ne- 

 cessities of man, a very few of them are applicable ; 

 but we can collect them for amusement, in admira- 

 tion of their beauty. Without this beauty, they 

 would be no object of research ; and man, who is 

 exclusively sensible of its existence, can alone find 

 pleasure in viewing it. The mind that is delighted 

 with such admiration, must be almost insensibly led 

 to an attendant pleasure, the contemplation, the 

 perception of infinite wisdom and power, manifested 

 in the adornment, splendour, and formation, of even 

 the simplest flower of the field. I would not arro- 

 gate for man an exclusive right, or make him gene- 

 rally the sole consideration of the beneficence of 

 Providence ; but there are influences, which his 



