20 MUSINGS ON FLOWERS. 
MUSINGS ON FLOWERS. 
Flowers, of all created things the most inno- 
cently simple, and most superbly complex ; play- 
things for childhood, ornaments of the grave, and 
companions of the cold corpse ! flowers, beloved 
by the wandering idiot, and studied by the deep 
thinking man of science ! flowers, that, of perish- 
ing things, are the most heavenly! flowers, that 
unceasingly expand to heaven their grateful, and 
to man their cheerful, looks ; partners of human 
joy ; soothers of human sorrow ; fit emblems of 
the victor's triumphs, of the young bride's blushes ; 
welcome to the crowded halls, and graceful upon 
solitary graves I flow^ers are in the volume of 
nature what the expression " God is love " is in the 
volume of the revelation. What a desolate place 
would be a world w^ithout a flower ! It w^ould be 
a face without a smile a feast without a wel- 
come. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and 
are not our stars the flowers of heaven ? One 
cannot look closely at the structure of a flower 
without loving it. They are emblems and mani- 
festations of God's love to the creation, and ihey 
are the means and ministrations of man's love to 
his fellow-creatures ; for they first awaken in his 
mind a sense of the beautiful and good. Their 
growth is always over their grave; the spot of 
their bloom is so quickly the sepulchre of their 
beauty ! 
@ 
