66 GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 



been ever considered as emblems of human life, and, 

 in all ages, affecting views and comparisons have been 

 drawn of their progress from debility and infancy to 

 youth, strength, maturity, and inevitable, final decay. 

 The heathen and the atheist have found in them 

 emblems of eternal oblivion, to which they suppose 

 man, with all his high-born hopes, is to be consigned. 

 As the leaves of the tree fall and perish for ever, so 

 they represent that when man returns to his mother 

 earth, it is only to mingle with the unthinking 

 material elements; that never more shall he be 

 conscious of existence, and that he, his virtues and 

 his crimes, sink into irrevocable annihilation. Yet 

 as no particle of matter is ever lost, though it may 

 undergo a thousand changes of the most extraordinary 

 kind, so we may rest satisfied that mind is equally 

 indestructible ; and though it be impossible for us to 

 trace its flight or modifications after death, there is 

 no reason for a moment to question its future 

 existence, and its immortality. Everything revealed 

 and rational teaches us, that the soul is destined to 

 survive " the wreck of elements and crush of worlds," 

 and that it may go on in increasing knowledge and 

 happiness for ever.' 



It is still the custom in many parts, particularly in 

 Guernsey and in Wales, to strew graves with rose- 

 mary (' that's for remembrance '), and with the most 



