WILD FLOWERS. 
173 
And this is the moral which may be drawn 
from the meanest weed, or blade, or leaf, on 
which we gaze. We have not the original to 
refer to, but cannot help thinking that useless 
was not exactly the word to express Madame 
de Stael’s meaning, as she says directly after, 
“ which, born to please,” and this negatives 
the idea of'their being useless, as it implies an 
end and a purpose, which they are to answer, 
though not, perhaps, the highest. 
And now for the second count in the indict¬ 
ment—the other objectionable word—which is 
also open to the suspicion of being a mistrans¬ 
lation ; that flowers disdain to serve, we strongly 
deny. Of all the creatures and objects which 
minister to man’s wants, or pleasures, they are 
the gentlest, the most unresisting; he may 
crush them, trample on them, do with them as 
he will, yet there they are, ever smiling up in 
his face, yielding him their fragrance, their 
nutriment, their alleviation for bodily pain, and 
mental disquietude :— 
“ Oh ! tell me not the gentle flowers 
Disdain to serve mankind,— 
15* 
