ON THE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 



139 



is local, yet it has a remarkably pretty effect, forming for the time one of the 

 gayest little shrubs that can be seen. A small branch or long spray of white- 

 thorn, with all its spines uninjured, is selected ; and on these its alternate thorns, 

 a white and a blue violet, plucked from their stalks, are stuck upright in succession 

 until the thorns are covered, and when placed in a flower-pot of moss, has perfectly 

 the effect of a beautiful vernal flowering dwarf shrub, and as long as it remains 

 fresh, is an object of surprise and delight. 



No portion of creation has been resorted to by mankind with more success 

 for the ornament and decoration of their labours, than the vegetable world; The 

 rites, emblems, and mysteries of religion, national achievements, eccentric masks, 

 and the capricious visions of fancy, have all been wrought by the hand of the 

 sculptor, on the temple, the altar, or the tomb; but plants, their foliage, 

 flowers, or fruits, as the most graceful, varied, and pleasing objects that meet our 

 view, have been more universally the objects of design, and have supplied the most 

 beautiful, and perhaps the earliest, embellishments of art. The pomegranate, 

 the almond, and flowers, were selected, even in the Wilderness, by Divine appoint- 

 ment, to give forrh to the various sacred utensils ; the rewards of merit, the 

 wreath of the victor, were arboraceous ; in later periods, the acanthus, the ivy, 

 the lotus, the vine, the palm, and the oak, flourished under the chisel or in the 

 loom of the artist ; and in modern days, the vegetable world affords the most 

 exclusive decorations of ingenuity and art. 



The cultivation of flowers is, of all the amusements of mankind, the one to 

 be selected and approved as the most innocent in itself, and most perfectly devoid 

 of injury or annoyance to others ; the employment is not only conducive to health 

 and peace of mind, but probably more good-will has arisen, and friendships been 

 founded, by the intercourse and communication connected with this pursuit, than 

 from any other whatsoever. The pleasures, the ecstacies of the' horticulturist 

 are harmless and pure ; a streak, a tint, a shade, becomes his triumph, which, 

 though often obtained by chance, is secured alone by morning care, by evening 

 caution, and the vigilance of days : an employ, which in its various grades, 

 excludes neither the opulent nor the indigent, and, teeming with boundless variety, 

 affords an unceasing excitement to emulation without contention or ill-will. 



Employment and occupation were as much the design, as they are found to be 

 essential to the happiness, of human life. We are not all constituted to soar in 

 the higher regions of scientific research ; our dispositions are various as our 

 intellects. Horticulture was the first occupation instituted for man, and he cannot 

 pursue a more innocent and harmless employ: we were given " every herb and 

 every tree upon the face of the earth." For food or raiment, the immediate 

 necessities of man, a very few of them are applicable ; but we can collect them 

 for amusement in admiration of their beauty. 



Without this beauty, they would be no object of research; and man, who is 

 exclusively sensible of its existence, can alone find pleasure in viewing it. The 



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