142 A Walk from 



centuries of the world. The Mistress of the Eobes is a 

 high dignitary in the Household of Boyalty, and has 

 her place near to the person of the Queen. But the 

 Floriculturist, of educated perception and taste, is the 

 master of a higher state robe, and holds the key of 

 embroidered vestments, cosmetics, tintings, artistries, 

 hair-jewels, head-dresses, brooches, and bracelets, which 

 no empress ever wore since human crowns were made ; 

 which Nature herself could not show on all the bygone 

 birthdays of her being. 



This is marvellous. It is an honor to man, put upon 

 hvm from above, as one of the gratuitous dignities of 

 his being. " An undevout astronomer is mad," said 

 one who had opened his mind to a broad grasp of the 

 wonders which this upper heaven holds in its bosom. 

 The floriculturist is an astronomer, with Newton's tele- 

 scope reversed ; and if its revelations do not stir up 

 holy thoughts in his soul, he is blind as well as mad. 

 No glass, no geometry that Newton ever lifted at the 

 still star-worlds above, could do more than reveal. At 

 the farthest stretch of their faculty, they could only 

 bring to light the life and immortality of those orbs 

 which the human eye had never seen before. They 

 could not tint nor add a ray to one of them all. They 

 never could bring down to the reach of man's unaided 

 vision a single star that Noah could not see through 



