rising poets of America also, not unpleasingly cultivate sympathies with them. The Greeks used flowers 
as part of their funeral tributes of regard. Thus Bion, in his Elegy on Adonis, exclaims — ‘Bring Adonis, 
however ghastly — place him between the crowns and the flowers — but since he has been dead, all the flowers 
have withered !’ v. 74-6. 
The Poet expresses also these two pretty fancies : — ‘But his remains have turned all things on the earth 
into flowers. His blood produced the Rose ; and his tears, the Anemone/ v.65. . . . The Anemone was made 
by the Egyptians an emblem of sickness. Hor. Ap. 1. 2. c. 8. 
Turkey has not many friends of the Muses. Yet among their few ancient poets of name, some have 
shown a strong sense of the beauties of the Floral Creation. 
Three passages of Mesihi in his Turkish Odes imply this sensibility. ‘O listen to the tale of the Night- 
ingale, which assures us that the vernal season approaches. The Spring has formed a bower of joy in every 
grove, where the almond-tree sheds its silver blossoms. The groves and the hills are adorned with all kinds 
of flowers. A pavilion of roses, like the seat of pleasure, is raised in the garden. Who knows which of us 
may be alive when the fair season ends ? — 
‘ The dew glitters on the leaves of the lily like the sparkling of a bright cymitar. The dew-drops fall 
thro the air on the garden of roses. O listen to me, if thou desirest to be delighted. The roses and tulips 
are like the blooming cheeks of beautiful maids, in whose ears hang varied gems, like drops of dew ; but 
think not that these charms will have a long duration. Every morning the clouds shed gems over the rose- 
beds, and the breath of the gale is full of Tartarian musk. Yet be not neglectful of thy duty thro too great 
a love of the world. — 
‘The sweetness of the rose-bed has made the air so fragrant, that the dew is changed to rose-water be- 
fore it falls. The sky has spread a pavilion of bright clouds over the garden. Be joyous then ! Be full of 
mirth, for the Spring season is passing away. It will not last/ Mesihi’s Ode, quoted in David’s Turkish 
Grammar. 
The Jewish Rabbis have been extravagant on this subject: for some believe that offending human souls 
transmigrate after death into buds and leaves. 
Thus they teach: ‘For certain crimes a soul goes into the leaf of a tree. The wind then rises, and, 
shaking it about, causes great torment. This punishment ceases when the leaf falls to the ground. Some- 
times, indeed, such a soul passes from leaf to leaf thro several leaves.’ Emek Hammelech, f. 158. c. 2. 
Nishmath Chajim, fo 161. c. 1. 
But Empedocles thought, or chose to assert, that his spirit, among its habitations after this world’s grave, 
went into vegetables. He boldly declared : ‘For I remember that formerly I was a plant, a fish, and a swift 
bird.’ Diog. Laert. 1. 8. s. 77- The Laurel was the shrub which he pretended to have animated. So that 
Virgil’s tale of the Myrtle bleeding and groaning as he tore off its branches : and of the voice from it, 
Nam Polydorus ego, (BSn. 1. 3.) was in accordance with some of the philosophic as well as popular super- 
stitions of his day. 
But however fanciful or wild these ideas and customs may be, they are evidence how eminently Ve- 
getable nature has at all periods and in all countries affected the imagination and the feelings of mankind. 
It is a fair inference from the universal fact, and from the concurring impressions on ourselves that they 
were made on purpose to interest us, as well as to beautify our inhabited surface. But it is not an imagi- 
nation — it is a sober reality to say, that wherever they have been cherished and cultivated, theyhave drawn 
the human spirit to seek and value the gentler and kinder dispositions and occupations of our very deviable 
moveable, irascible and sturdy self-will. As these moral, intellectual, and religious results are the natural 
effects of the Vegetable Creation upon mankind, and appear, more or less, so much in all countries and in 
all ages, as to indicate that impressions of this sort are universal, we are entitled to infer that these con- 
sequences were among the purposes for which this Order of beings was created, and which they were appoint- 
ed to produce. The general effects of all made things imply that the intention of the Maker was to produce 
them. So we may reason as to the design and ends of the Creator in His Vegetable classes. They increase 
our knowlege of Him; they are the pledges of His affection for His human race, and gentle attractions of 
our sensibilities to Him; they are the great sources of our subsistence, conveniences and improvements; 
they are the basis of all animal nutrition ; they furnish our most constant gratifications and purest pleasures 
they tend to link our kind feelings with each other, by the sympathising admiration which their beauties ex- 
cite ; the cultivation they require is our most virtuous and beneficial occupation ; and their serviceable pro- 
zrties are so arranged as to compel us to this useful cultivation, by their produce being made to arise from 
A. Their operation on our intellectual faculties and moral emotions, is likewise that of a soothing melioration 
which increases as our mind advances in its progressive civilization. All the beautiful thoughts and senti- 
ments which poetry has breathed in every age, in praise of verdant or floral nature, and of the rural life, are 
the expressed homage of the heart to the charms and utilities of the Vegetable Creation, and are so many 
undesigned but implied encomiums on its invisible Author, for planning and ordaining it. Whatever we 
may mean, or whatever phrases we may use, we cannot commend nature without praising Him. The pane- 
gyric flies immediately from the insensate beauties we may admire, to the Mind which designed them and 
to the Power which produced them. 
