88 
CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. 
a pleasure for which we know not how to 
account; it is an admiration implanted in us 
by the Great Maker for the most lovely of His 
creations :— 
“ Go, mark the matchless workings of the power, 
That shuts within the seed the future flower; 
Bids these in elegance of form excel— 
In colour these, and those delight the smell; 
Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies. 
To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes.” 
Cowper. 
Let the infant, peevish and fretful from suffering 
under one of the many disorders to which infancy 
is peculiarly liable, be shown a flower, and how 
quickly will the tears be changed to smiles ; how 
eagerly will he endeavour to obtain it, clapping 
his little chubby hands, and crowing again with 
excess of glee ; and when in possession of the 
prize so much coveted, how will he strive, by 
chuckling laughter, and broken lispings, to ex¬ 
press his admiration, turning it round and round, 
and viewing it on all sides, his eyes sparkling 
the while, like the bubbles on a sun-lit foun¬ 
tain :— 
