CHILDREN AND FLOWERS. 9'J 
before him in all their pristine freshness and 
beauty. The soul, as it approaches more nearly 
to its Creator, becomes purified ; the fogs and 
mists of prejudice and folly are swept away, 
and it is enabled more clearly to distinguish, 
and better to appreciate the value of that state 
of innocence, which is an antetype of the angelic. 
It longs to be once more as a little child, having 
now come to a right understanding of our 
Saviour’s words ,—“ Suffer little children to 
come unto me, and forbid them not; for oj 
such is the kingdom of Heaven .” 
“ Oh, world of sweet phantoms, how pleasant thou art! 
The past is perpetual youth to.the heart.”—L. E. L. 
Sang one who perished, like a just expanded 
rose on which the blight has suddenly fallen; 
and Keats, the pure, the gentle-hearted, he,— 
“ Who grew 
Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished, 
And fed with true-love tears, instead of dew.”— Shelley. 
Was it not this feeling which prompted him, 
on the bed of dissolution, to exclaim, that u he 
felt the daisies growing over him ?” 
