334 Transactions of the American Institute. 



turn out for blind Bartimeus ? That they do not Imger among the 

 flowers and regale their angelic natures with the transcendant beauty 

 that ice behold with our sluggish vision ? We banquet on tangible 

 material fruit, which is soon consumed and disappears. And it 

 aiJbrds a certain part of , our nature unspeakable delight to gaze on 

 the beautiful flowers. They are inspiring teachers. The gaudj 

 colors of the beautiful petals dispel the gloom of solitude, and cheer 

 our lonely hearts like the presence of congenial companions, and lift 

 our earthly thoughts on the wings of devotion and love. The 

 immortal Smith says : 



Were I, O God, in heathen lands remaining, 

 Far from all temples, altars and divines, 

 My soul would find in flowers of Thy ordaining, 

 Priests, temples, shrines. 



With our benighted vision we are sometimes unable to see the 

 utility and to appreciate the exquisite beauty of rare flowers. Yet, 

 there are a few things, just a few, that we are able to appreciate, and 

 to understand in part. We have a nature that, when properly 

 trained, educated, and developed, by cultivating flowers, lingering 

 among them and with them, becomes more and more refined. Culti- 

 vating flowers, com]5anionizing with them, and talking with them, 

 lifts us up out of the uncouth nature of boorishness, and refines and 

 elevates the whole man, just as the science of music refines, elevates, 

 and polishes, where a coarse exterior has heretofore eclipsed the moral 

 beauties that music only is able to unfold. We have a nature that 

 feasts upon the fruit. 



Is it or is it not possible that beings may exist, whose chief subsist- 

 ence is the heauty of the flowers, the heauty of the rainbow tints, and 

 the glowing sunbeams ? 



I once heard an illustrious philosopher say : " You may talk to your 

 growing beans, talk to your peas, and any of your vegetables, and 

 there will be a response from those growing plants, if the faithful cul- 

 tivator acts well his part." Surely, then, they who love flowers may 

 companionize and talk with them, and through their angelic influence 

 rise in the scale of intelligence, and learn from their terrestrial teach- 

 ers to become wiser and grow better from day to day. Flowers teach 

 UB also the source of our being. 



" In reason's ear they all rejoice. 

 And utter forth a glorious voice. 

 Forever singing as tliey shine. 

 The hand that made us is divine !" 



