24 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
between man and the forms and motions of all the 
natural objects in the creation ; and, to borrow 
Chateaubriand's bold metaphor, the whole universe 
may be considered as the imagination of the Deity 
rendered visible ; yet certainly this similarity is 
most particularly striking in the vegetable world. 
The most superficial observer cannot fail to per- 
ceive that plants present faithful emblems of the 
various stages of human life, and the most remarka- 
ble peculiarities in our physical formation, and in 
our moral relations to each other. 
In those southern regions, where every living 
being feels the influence of vital heat and the 
exciting oxygen which pervades the atmosphere 
— where the genial climate, with scarcely any 
change of seasons, liberally provides for the support 
of man — Nature presents her vegetable hierogly- 
phics in the most marked and permanent characters. 
The contemplation of the starry canopy of heaven 
is calculated to inspire every reflecting mind with 
the sublimest ideas of immortality. When the at- 
tractions of all transitory objects are veiled in the 
gloom of night — when, amidst the stillness of 
Nature, the voice of God resounds in the rustling 
