The richness of the latter, indeed, would be heightened, and their
elegance increased, by the judicious introduction of flowers and foliage
into them. The odour of flowers, the cool appearance of the dark green
leaves of some species, and the beautiful tints and varied forms of
others, are singularly grateful to the sight, and refreshing at the same
time. Vases of Etruscan mould, containing plants of the commonest kind,
offer those lines of beauty which the eye delights in following; and
variform leaves hanging festooned over them, and shading them if they be
of a light colour, with a soft grateful hue, add much to their pleasing
effect. These decorations are simple and cheap.
Lord Bacon, whose magnificence of mind exempts him from every objection
as a model for the rest of mankind, (in all but the unfortunate error to
which, perhaps, his sordid pursuit in life led him, to the degradation
of his nobler intellect), was enthusiastically attached to flowers, and
kept a succession of them about him in his study and at his table. Now
the union of books and flowers is more particularly agreeable.
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