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When the legends and fables of simpler times pertain to trees and flowers, they are especially luminative of the mental processes of unschooled men; for the vegetable world has changed little in three thousand years, and the marks and colors that explain some beliefs are still impressed on the leaves and petals. The sjrtnbolism adopted therefrom is wide in meaning, and to this day is in common use. It is poetic, hence it appeals to every intelligence; for while we affect to prize poetry for its beauty, to the savage it was native speech, inasmuch as his vocabulary was allegoric-a humanization of the skies, the sunsets, the storms, the flowers. We sometimes hear that ours is a material, dull age, yet we perpetuate terms and usances which ally us to the childhood of the race, and which stand for imagination and sheer loveliness. We still speak of laureled brows, palms of victory, the rose of beauty, the lily of purity, the oak of strength, willowy grace, fig-trees of shelter, and corn of abundance; we extend the olive branch of peace, we put our legs under our host's mahogany, we indicate poison by nightshade and toadstools, and health by flowers and fruits. Though Bacchus is no longer with us, we emblemize him MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF FLOWERS, ETC...

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9781974347094

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