ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



THE USE OF FLOWERS. 



GOD might have bade the earth bring forth 

 Enough for great and small, 

 The oak tree and the cedar tree, 

 Without a flower at all. 



He might have made enough, enough, 



For even T want of ours; 

 For luxury, medicine and toil 



And yet have made no flowers. 



The ore within the mountain mine, 



Requireth none to grow, 

 Nor doth it need the lotus flower 



To make the river flow. 



The clouds might give abundant rain, 



.The nightly dews might fall, 

 And the herb that keepeth life in man 

 Might yet have drunk them all. 



Then wherefore, wherefore were they made, 



All dyed with rainbow light; 

 All fashioned with supremest grace, 



Upspringing day and night. 



Springing in vallej-s green and low, 



And on the mountains high, 

 And in the silent wilderness, 



Where no man passes by ? 



Our outward life requires them not 



Then wherefore had they birth ? 

 To minister delight to man 



To beautify the earth. 



To comfort man to whisper hope, 



Whene'er his faith is dim ; 

 For who so careth for the flowers, 



Will much more care for him ! 



MARY HOWITT. 



Those green-robed senators of mighty woods, 

 Tall oaks, branch-charmed by the earnest stars, 

 Dream and so dream all night without a stir. 



KEATS Hyperion. Bk. I, line 73. 



