LANGUAGE OP PLOWEKS. 17 
of all languages. It was an easy transition, 
after they had come to be regarded as proofs 
and manifestations of divine love, goodness, and 
protection, to make them the signs and symbols 
of human feelings and passions ; hence hopes, 
fears, and desires, joys and sorrows, and all the 
sentiments and emotions which sway and agitate 
the soul of man, have had their appropriate 
expression in these mute, yet eloquent letters 
of the blooming alphabet of creation — 
“ By all those token flowers that tell 
What words can ne’er express so well.”— Byron. 
Sings the poet of our day, adjuring his mistress 
to believe in his truth and fidelity, and so, though 
in somewhat different words, might have sung, 
and very likely did sing, the Israelite of old on 
the flowery banks of Jordan, the Babylonian in 
his hanging gardens, or the swarthy son of 
Egypt, who, kneeling by the mysterious Nile, 
might have plucked the blossom of the bright 
nymphcea, and putting it to his lips, and turning 
to the earthly idol of his adoration, have said:— 
2 * 
