MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
05 
^ £ Mature has scattered around us on every 
side, and for every sense, an inexhaustible pro¬ 
fusion of beauty and sweetness, if we will but 
perceive it; for—to continue the same writer 
—“ The pleasures we derive from flowers, from 
musical sounds, and the forms. 1, of trees, are 
surely not given us in vain, and if we are con¬ 
stantly alive to these, we can never be in want 
of subjects of agreeable contemplation, and must 
be habitually cheerful.” Yes most assuredly— 
“God made the flowers to beautify 
The earth, and cheer man’s careful njood, 
And he is happiest who hath power 
To gather wisdom from a flower. 
And wake his heart in every hour 
To pleasant gratitude.”— Wordsworth. 
It is only in contemplations such as these, 
that we can hope to obtain true happiness; the 
feverish joys of the world are short-lived and 
unsatisfactory; like gilded dreams that haunt 
the sick man’s couch, making his waking hours 
more painful from the contrast, they are ever 
mingled with alloys ; it is a poisoned chalice 
from which we drink the enchanted potion :— 
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