Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-03-22
The Secret OF the Flower.

What signifies the existence of the plant
Ia it we contemplate the pleasant sight of
being opening without resistance and
yielding without mistrust to the mysterious
power of nature. Whilst the latter as a
fond mother, generously instils into this
delicate and fragile being sap which will
display its strength in a profusion of per-
fume, SAVIOR, form and color, the latter re-
ceives it all silently aud without effort, and
claims to be nothing less aud nothing more
than what this abundant communication of
the infinite will make it. Do you recognize
in this the emblem and, so to speak, the par
able of the relation between man and the
inhuite being who has given him life Man
giving himself up to God with unreserved
confidence, God communicating himself to
man in the fullness of his infinite munfi-
cence. What is the Specification of the
flower 1t is the image of our destination
fulfilled. The world OF plants is book of
prints, containing hundreds and thousands
of pictures, by every one of which the Gre
ator tells us in gentle accents, Act freely
and unconstrainedly towards me, o man, as
this creature acts unconsciously towards ma,
ture Open thy heart to the action of my
spirit, and l will display in thee such per-
fections OF wisdom, beauty, power and love
as will be far superior still TO those thou ad-
mirest in these beings" He had understood
the language which the world of h,wers
speaks TO the human heart, that prince of
modern poets, Ruckert, who in distich We
can but imperfectly translate, said, "The
flower has divine secret TO reveal to thee,
d man 1t showeth thee how thing which
is but humid dust may wear celestial splen-
dor J. That is perhaps what explains the
charm which the world of plants exercises
over the soul wearied by the strife of life,
and the calm and peaceful influence which
80 naturally flows from it. The flower is the
emblem OF our destination fulfilled, of our
ideal realized. Realized 2 Yes but only
in figure. For there is wanting in the plant
what is wanting in nature herself, its mother
Liberty. 1t fulfills its destination, but
passively. What contrast between the
sphere OF the plant and the animal Here
we find, il not liberty, at least spontaneous
motion, which is its prelude. In passing
from the plant to the animal we enter into
the labor OF life, with its emotions, passions
dangers, struggles and sorrows. We are in
the sphere OF a serious and fearful reality
The bloody struggle for existence has be-
gun, and is preparing the way for the ap-
partition of the b,ng in whom the ideal is
fully TO be realized, not only under the form
of graceful emblem, but under that of
real life We are visbly approaching the
being in whom the free surrender OF the
finite mind will at length meet the generous
love of the infinite. The fact is obvious /:
the plant speaks the graceful language of
poetry the animal, that of stern history.
Man Is the crown of the arch towards which
both these inferior domains of nature con-
verge he is the crowning of history and the
realiz ,tion of poetry, the free and living
bond which unites all nature TO that God
who created it for himself.-ProE Godet.