44 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



element of true religion. Flowers have been aptly called the 

 smiles of God. 



Show me the man that does not love flowers and children, and 

 you will find him but little above the brute, destitute of the 

 more ennobling qualities of manhood. Such a man should not 

 be trusted. Why was it that God planted the first garden and 

 filled it with fruits and flowers, and " every thing that was pleas- 

 ant to the sight," and then took the man he had made and put 

 him into the garden to dress and keep it, if it were not to bring 

 him into daily contact with nature, and to give him pure, simple 

 and rational pleasures, and to teach him happiness ? Why was 

 it that a garden was selected as the last resting place for Him 

 whose pure life of love has lasted through more than eighteen 

 centuries, and will continue to the end of time ? Why is it that 

 this feeling of reverence and yearning for the " lost garden " 

 has come down to us through all the dark ages of the world, 

 growing more intense as the world becomes more civilized and 

 refined ? Why is it that a flower will attract the notice of the 

 infant in its mother's arms, sooner than any toy ? Why is it 

 that the older we grow the greater is our love of flowers ? Why 

 is it that we decorate the graves of our loved ones, and the 

 graves of our dead solders, with flowers ? Why is it that the 

 love of flowers is not confined to any class, race, or nation ? It 

 is because they speak a universal language — the language of 

 the heart — and respond to the noblest and most generous emo- 

 tions of the soul — soothing, cheering, delighting, animating, 

 subduing and refining the mind of man by their divine minis- 

 trations. Truly, flowers are God's telegraph from the soul of 

 man to Himself — divine messengers, full of life and love and 

 beauty. 



