XV111 INTRODUCTION. 



ing may be considered the emblem of youth 

 and beauty, and at night either the drooping 

 picture of decline, or the withered, lifeless 

 victim of dissolution. The poet and the 

 painter are both indebted to the flower-gar- 

 den. What simple, yet what elegant and 

 striking metaphors, similes, and apostrophes, 

 has not the poet drawn from the Rose, the 

 Tulip, and the Lily ! From these, too, the 

 painter first learns his expression of nature, 

 and studies the art of colouring, with which 

 he afterwards gives seeming life and anima- 

 tion to the more sublime subjects of his pencil. 



' I have neither the Scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; 

 nor the Musician's, which is fantastical; nor the Courtier's, which 

 is proud ; nor the Soldier's, which is ambition ; nor the Lawyer's, 

 which is politic ; nor the Lady's, which is nice ; nor the Lover's, 

 which is all these.' SHAKSPEARE. 



It is true that the fancies and tastes of men 

 are various and singular. Natural history, in 

 its several divisions and parts, engages the 



