A SECRET OF THE CHARM OF FLOWERS 147 



years, the look which no person not blinded by- 

 reading can fail to see in a flower, is sufficient 

 to reveal aU this hidden wonderful knowledge 

 about the first openings of the heart towards 

 nature, during the remote infancy of the human 

 race. 



From this it will be seen that I am not 

 claiming a discovery ; that what I have called 

 a secret of the charm of flowers is a secret 

 known to every man, woman, and child, even 

 to those of my own friends who stoutly deny 

 that they have any such knowledge. But I 

 think it is best known to children. What I am 

 here doing is merely to bring together and put 

 in form certain more or less vague thoughts and 

 feelings which I (and therefore all of us) have 

 about flowers ; and it is a small matter, but it 

 happens to be one which no person has hitherto 

 attempted. 



It may be that in some of my readers' minds 

 — ^those who, like the sceptical friends I have 

 mentioned, are not distinctly conscious of the 

 cause or secret of the expression of a flower — 

 some doubt may still remain after what has been 

 said of the blue and purple-blue blossom. Such 



