42 A Plea for the Flowers, 



A PLEA FOR THE FLOWERS. 



By Alexander Hyde, Lee, Mass. 



There is a class of persons in every community which may be called 

 utilitarian. With them everything must be shown to be useful before 

 it can be considered valuable. Cabbages make milk and muscle ; there- 

 fore cabbages must be cultivated. Apples are good for dumplings and 

 cider ; hence apples receive a share of attention. Grapes are a luxury, 

 and it is a matter of indifference whether they are cultivated or not. 

 Fuchsias cannot be eaten or sold ; therefore to the mere utilitarian they 

 are valueless. 



There is another class, which may be called assthetic. With this 

 class beauty is the standard of value. They have a natural love of the 

 beautiful, and, by education, their taste has become so refined and deli- 

 cate, that they despise common and useful men, and common and use- 

 ful things. With such the cultivation of flowers is the noblest of 

 employments. The artist is held in high esteem by them, while the 

 artisan is neglected. Both these classes have some truth for the basis 

 of their characteristics ; but they do not see the whole truth. The util- 

 itarian looks only at the useful, and the aesthetic only at the beautiful ; 

 and each undei-values what he has not particularly studied, and conse- 

 quently loses much of the enjoyment which life is capable of furnishing. 



We desire, in this short article, to call the attention of the utilitarian 

 to the value of the beautiful, and especially of flowers, as the highest 

 types of physical beauty. In the first place, to despise or undervalue 

 flowers is to reflect on the wisdom of the Creator who made them. It 

 is obvious to the most stupid observer, that the Omniscient regards the 

 beautiful as worthy of his attention ; for the earth is most profusely 

 adorned. He might have made the fruits and vegetables to grow with- 

 out the flowers ; but the infinite wisdom and benevolence that made 

 the fruit made also the blossoms which herald it, and it is simply arro- 

 gance in pimy man to question the value of those blossoms. We are 

 glad the Creator took no counsel with the utilitarians when he planned 

 the universe ; for they would have advised that everything should have 

 been as straight and plain as a pikestaff", whereas now " there is beauty 

 all around our paths," if we only have eyes to see it. Not only the 

 flowers, with their exquisite coloring, graceful form, delightful fra- 

 grance, and perfect symmetry, but all things, animate or inanimate, 

 were created with an eye to beauty as well as utility — were designed 

 to give pleasure to all created intelligences, and first to the Creator 



