04 
MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
<t read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” those 
<< written words,” so shall we profit thereby,, 
and lay up in our hearts treasures whose value 
is far above that of silver and gold—more 
precious than jewels from Golconda’s mines ; 
treasures which neither moth nor rust may 
corrupt, nor thieves break in and steal. 
“ Flowers, the sole luxury that nature knew, 
In Eden’s pure and spotless garden grew, 
Gay without toil, and lovely without art, 
They spring to cheer the sense, and glad the human heart.” 
Hear this, Oh, man of many sorrows !—thou 
whose hopes are blighted, and on whose mind 
grief sits, like an incubus, repressing all cheerful 
thoughts, and sinking it deeper and deeper into 
the gulph of despair ;—hear the words of one 
who was like thyself, a child of misfortune— 
“ the melancholy Cowley” —but who yet from 
the midst of the gloom that surrounded him, 
could see the beneficence of the Almighty in 
his works, and draw consolation therefrom. 
Oh, shake off thy despondency ! and go forth 
rejoicing that—to use the words of Basil Hall, 
