16 I/ANGtrAQE OF FLOWERS. 
poet, ^^and Solomon, in all his wisdom never 
taught more wholesome lessons than these 
silent monitors convey to a thoughtful mind 
and an understanding heart.” There are 
two books,” says Sir Thomas Browne, from 
whence I collect my divinity; besides that 
written one of God, another of His servant, 
nature, that universal and public manuscript 
that lies expanded unto the eyes of all. Those 
who never saw Him in the one have discovered 
Him in the other. This was the scripture and 
theology of the heathens ; the natural motion of 
the sun made them more admire Him than its 
supernatural station did the children of Israel; 
the ordinary effects of nature wrought more 
admiration in them, than in the other all his 
miracles. Surely the heathens knew better 
how to join and read these mystical letters, than 
w^e Christians, who cast a more careless eye on 
these common hieroglyphics, and disdain to 
suck divinity from the flowers of nature.” 
‘‘Flowers,” says Mr. Phillips, “formed a 
principal feature in symbolical language, which 
is the most ancient, as well as the most natural. 
