THE EARLY FLOWERS. 23 



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is proportional to the simplicity of our habits and pur- 

 suits, and that this poor herbwoman, who lives chiefly 

 under the open windows of heaven, enjoys more happi- 

 ness than many envied persons who are prisoned in a 

 palace and shackled with gold. By talking with the 

 children he may learn the locality of some rare plant, a 

 new phase in the aspect of nature, or discover some for- 

 gotten charm that once hovered round certain old famil- 

 iar scenes to whose cheering influence he had become 

 blunted, but which is now revived by witnessing its 

 effects on the susceptible minds of the young. 



We have to lament in this climate the absence of many 

 beautiful flowers which are associated in our minds with 

 the opening of spring by our familiarity with English lit- 

 erature. We search in vain over our green meads and 

 sunny hillsides for the daisy and the cowslip, that spangle 

 the fields in Great Britain and gladden the sight of the 

 English cottager. We have read of them until they seem 

 like the true tenants of our own fields ; and when on a 

 pleasant ramble we do not find them, there is a void in 

 the landscape, and the fields seem to be wanting in their 

 fairest ornaments. Thus poetry, while it inspires the mind 

 with sentiments that increase the sum of our happiness, 

 often binds our affections to objects we can never behold 

 and shall never caress. The daisy and cowslip are remem- 

 bered in our reading as the bright-eyed children of Spring, 

 and they emblemize those little members of our former 

 family circle of whom we have heard but have never 

 seen, who exist only in the pensive history of the youth- 

 ful group whose number is imperfect without them. 



In our gardens only do we find the pensive snow- 

 drop, the poetic narcissus, the crocus, and the hyacinth. 

 There only is the pansy, or tri-colored violet, which adorns 

 the fresh chaplets of April and blends its colors with the 

 yellow sheaves of autumn. There only are the lily of 



