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These are Thy wonders, Lord of love ! 
To make us see that we are but flow’rs that glide, 
Which when we once can find and prove, 
Thou hast a garden for us where to bide ; 
Who would be more, swelling through store, 
Forfeit their Paradise by their pride. 
Herbert. 
xf 
CHAPTER III. 
DECORATIONS FOR THE HOME. 
LTHOUGH the seasons must determine by •’j - their 
productions the nature of the materials to be 
employed, certain principles of action apply to 
all the various methods of embellishment adopted 
for different parts of the house. We may take 
lessons at flower shows to advantage, but 
we must modify our tactics to suit the 
domestic scene, for the formality of a dis¬ 
play resulting from a settled competition is 
the very thing we do not want. But let us 
take one lesson on a point of art. We enter an 
exhibition, and find the plants on high stages 
of rough wood, and we see the pots in which the 
plants are grown far more perfectly than the plants 
themselves. This is a quite common mistake. In 
another instance, we find the plants staged on a 
low bed, the ground-work being a clean grass turf, 
the pots hidden, perhaps, by means of baize or grass mowings, or at 
least overshadowed by the plants themselves, so as to be no longer 
