OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 

 poverty. Man had not yet learnt to look around him, to enjoy 

 the life of nature. Then came the Renascence, the great voy- 

 ages, the discovery and the invasion of the sunlight. All the 

 flowers of the world, the successful efforts, the deep, inmost 

 beauties, the joyful thoughts and wishes of the planet rose 

 up to us, borne on a shaft of light that, in spite of its heavenly 

 wonder, issued from our own earth. Man ventured forth 

 from the cloister, the crypt, the town of brick and stone, the 

 gloomy stronghold in which he had slept. He went down 

 into the garden, which became peopled with bees, purple and 

 perfumes; he opened his eyes, astounded like a child escaping 

 from the dreams of the night; and the forest, the plain, the 

 sea and the mountains and, lastly, the birds and the flowers, 

 that speak in the name of all a more human language which 

 he already understood, greeted his awakening. 



9 



Nowadays, perhaps, there are no undiscovered flowers. 

 We have found all or nearly all the forms which nature lends 

 to the great dream of love, to the yearning for beauty that stirs 

 within her bosom. We live, so to speak, in the midst of her 

 tenderest confidences, of her most touching inventions. We 



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