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36 , THE POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
seasons which must come and go before that little 
flower shall burst forth in its loveliness again. 
Happy is it for those who have so counted the 
cost of the coming year, that they shall not find at 
the end they have expended either hope or desire 
in fruitless speculations. 
It is of little consequence what flower comes 
next under consideration. A few specimens will 
serve the purpose of proving that these lovely pro- 
ductions of nature are, in their general associa- 
tions, highly poetical. The primrose is one upon 
which we dwell with pleasure proportioned to our 
taste for rural scenery, and the estimate we have 
previously formed of the advantages of a peaceful 
and secluded life. In connection with this flower, 
imagination pictures a thatched cottage standing 
on the slope of the hill, and a little woody dell, 
whose green banks are spangled all over with yel- 
low stars, while a troop of rosy children are gam- 
bolling on the same bank, gathering the flowers, as 
we used to gather them ourselves, before the toils 
and struggles of mortal conflict had worn us down 
to what we are now ; and thus presenting to the 
mind the combined ideas of natural enjoyment, 
innocence, and rural peace the more vivid, be- 
cause we can remember the time when some- 
thing like this was mingled with the cup of which 
we drank the more touching, because we doubt 
whether, if such pure drops were still there, they 
would not to our taste have lost their sweetness. 
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