Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1853-09-04

wood, a silver sound rising up among Silver-lit
leaves into the moon-lighted air; or the low con
versations of persons whom you love, that sit at
the hire in the room when you are eonyalescent
when we think of these things we are apt to mag
Inc nothing perfect that has not the gift of sound
But you change your mind when you dwell loving
y among flowers; they are always silent Sound
is never associated with them They speak to Won.
but it is as the eye speaks by vibrations of o and
not of air.
1t is with flowers as with friends MANY may ba
loved. but few much loved. Wild honey-suckles in
the woOd laurel bushes in the very regality of bloom
are very beautiful to you But they are color and
form only. They seem strangers to you You have
no memories reposed in them They bring back
nothing from Time. They point to nothing TO
come. But 4 wild brier awakes deeper feeling
1t is the country cousin of the rose and that has
been your pet You have nursed it, and defended
it; you have had it for companionshp as you wrote
1t has brought remembrance to you, and conveyed
your kindest feelings to Others you remember it as
a mothers fayorite; it speaks to you of your own
childhood-that white rose bush that stood in the
corner by the door, Or that generous bush that
blushed red in the garden with q thousand flowers.
whose gorgeousness was among the first things that
drew your childish eye, and which always comes up
before you when you speak of childhood You re-
member too that your mother loved them. As YOU
walked to church she plucked off bud and gave
you, which you carried because you were proud to
do as she did, and you remember how, in the listen
ing hour of sermon her roses fell neglected on her
lap-and how you slyly drew one and another of
them; and how, when she came to, she looked for
them under her handkerchief, ard on the floor and
then, spying the i'll repressed glee of your face,
smiled such look of love upon you, as made rose
forever after seem to you as if it smiled mothers
smile. And so the dog rose, or the prairie rose, or
the sweet-briar, that at evening fills the air with Odor
Ia floral nightingale whose song is perfun) greets
you as dear and intimate friends. You almost wish
to get out, YOU travel, and inquire after their
health, and ask if they would send any message to
their town friends.
But no flower can be so strange, or so new. that /
frendliness does not spring up at once between |
you You gather them up along your rambles; and I
sit down to make their acquaintance on some sha-
ded bank with your feet over the brook where your
shoes feed their vanity as in Mirror you sort thcm
you question their graees; you enjoy their odor you
range them in the grass in a row and look from one
to another; you gather them up, and study fit
graduation of coors, aud search for new specimens
to fill the degrees between two violent extremes
All the while, and it is long while if the day be
gracious, and leisure is ample You are having va
riOus suggestions and anaogies Of life darting in
and out of your mind This flower is just like a !
friend; that one makes you think of mignonette. +
4nd mignonette always makes yOu think of such a
garden and mansion where it enacted a memora-
Ole part; and that flower conveys some strange and
Unexpected resemblance to certain events of society
md your pleased attention strays through thou
and varieties of fancy, memory, or matchmaking
nope.
Yet, these are not home flowers YOu did not
plant them. You have not screened them. You
nave not watched their growth, plucked away vora-
,iOus worms, or nibbling bugs; and seen them in
he same places year after year, children of your
care and love. Around such there is an artificial /
ife. an assOciational beauty fragrance and grace
or the affections that no wild flowers can have
1t is a matter of often gratitude that this finest /
,iit of Providence was the most profisely given
Flowers cannot be mOnopolized. The poor can
nave them as well the rich. 1t does not require
uch an education to love and appreciate them as
would to admire picture of Turner's or sta
ue of ThOrwaldsen's. And as they are messen-
rers of affection, tokens of remembrance, and pre-
ents of beauty, of universal acceptance, it is plea
ant to think that in them, all men recognize brief
brotherhood 1t is not impertinent to offer flowers
% a stranger The poorest child can profar them
o the rieheSt.-badepsnden