10 
INTRODUCTION. 
the flowers, giving him a new lesson every day, until not 
a bell bowed or a bud expanded, nor a blossom opened 
its beautiful lips, without Love knowing every word it 
whispered. For days did Love linger with his sweet 
sister the Rose, before he again set out on his pilgrim¬ 
age ; but his journey was now no longer lonely ; he 
found a companion in every flower by the wayside, and 
held converse with every bud that dwelt within its green 
homestead of leaves. 
Long did Love brood over the new language which he 
had discovered, and many a day did he sit pondering to 
himself, as if hesitating whether or not he should trust 
Woman with the secret. “ She is already armed with* 
beauty,” reasoned Love, as he sat with his elbow pil¬ 
lowed on a bed of flowers ; “ there is a language in her 
eyes, and a sweet music in her voice, and shall I now 
teach her to converse through flowers—to give a tongue 
to the rose, and a voice to the lily, and hang upon the 
honeysuckle words of love, and turn every blossom she 
gathers into the language of affection ? No: I will 
again fly abroad, and dropping a bud here and a bell 
there, see to what purpose she turneth these beautiful 
secrets. I will but at first teach her a few letters in this 
new Alphabet of Love.” 
Then he thought that as the flowers were such holy 
things, born of beauty and nursed in purity, fed upon 
