CHAPTEE L 



The Flower-Gardex — Its Eomance a^^d Eeality. 



" There's not a flower can grow upon the earth 

 Without a flower upon the spiritual side; 



All that we see is pattern of what shall be in the mount, ' 

 Related royally, and built up to eterne significance. 



There's nothing small; 

 No lily, muflled hum of summer bee, 

 But finds its coupling in the spinning stars; 

 Ko pebble at your feet but proves a sphere; 

 No chaffinch but implies a cherubim; 



Earth is full of heaven, 

 And every common bush a-fire with God.'' 



A beautiful garden, tastefully laid out, and well kept, is a certain 

 eyidence of taste, refinement and culture. It makes a lowly cottage 

 attractiYe, and lends a charm to the stateliest palace. 



An English writer, lately yisiting our country, writes : 



" I can conceive of nothing more dreary than to liye in the country 

 and have no garden. To have no garden is to take the poetry, and 

 nearly all the cTiarms away from country life. To haye a garden, is to 

 haye many friends continually near. 



"What a difference between what Mr. Carlyle calls an ^umbrageous 

 man's rest, in which a king might wish to sit and smoke, and call it 

 his,' with its roses, and honeysuckles, and fuchsias clambering in 

 through the yery windows in crowds, and the dreary, arid prospect 

 around thousands of American houses ! " 



