186 POETICAL LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
But let us not mourn: for from that hour when the 
spirit of Abel went wailing over the bowers of Eden, 
in the dim twilight of the early world, were the im¬ 
mortal gates of heaven thrown open ; and Time and 
Death looked aghast upon each other, as they heard 
those golden doors swing wide, and caught a glimpse 
of the first mortal that passed through the cold gates 
of Death to that bright abode of eternal sunshine, and 
those boundless gardens filled with never-dying flow¬ 
ers. From that moment they knew that their power 
extended not beyond the grave; that but for a brief 
space the beauty of mortality should close, like a flow¬ 
er that folds itself up and sleeps, while all the land 
around is dark, then opens again beneath a new morn¬ 
ing, which had never before dawned upon ,the world ; 
whose golden beams would throw around it an im¬ 
mortal halo, and give neither Time nor Death again 
power over the drooping bud which those sunrays had 
touched. It was then that Love alighted upon the 
earth, and proclaimed to all that the hearts which re¬ 
mained true and faithful to each other, should be uni¬ 
ted again after Death had severed them ; that true 
love was immortal, and never could die; that on this 
cold, changeable earth, Happiness never arrived to its 
