London to John O' Groat's. 141 



end of fifty centuries at the touch of human genius. 

 Those of which Solomon sang in his time, and which 

 exceeded his glory in their every-day array, even " the 

 hyssop by the wall," never showed, on the gala-days of 

 his Egyptian bride, the hidden charms which he, in 

 his wisdom, knew not how to unlock. Flowers in- 

 numerable are now, like illuminated capitals of Nature's 

 alphabet, flecking, with their sheen-dots, prairie, steppe, 

 mountain and meadow, the earth around, which, per- 

 haps, will only give their best beauties to the world in 

 a distant age. As the light of the latest created and 

 remotest stars has not yet completed its downward 

 journey to the eye of man, so to his sight have not 

 these sweet-breathing constellations of the field yet 

 made the full revelation of their treasured hues 

 and forms. Not one in a hundred of them all has 

 done this up to the present moment. When one in 

 ten of those that bless us with their life and being 

 shall put on all its reserved beauty, then, indeed, the 

 stars above and the stars below will stud the firmaments 

 in which they shine with equal glory, and blend both 

 in one great heavenscape for the eye and heart of man. 

 One by one, in its turn, the key of human genius shall 

 unlock the hidden wardrobe of the commonest flowers, 

 and deck them out in the court dress reserved, for five 

 thousand years, to be worn in the brighter, afternoon 



