ought beautiful, in proportion as they
resemble the lively tinge of natural flowers.

"These have always been the symbols, or representations of joy; they
were formerly the inseparable ornaments of feasts, and are still
introduced with applause, toward the close of our entertainments, when
they are brought in with the fruit, to enliven the festival that begins
to languish. And they are so peculiarly adapted to scenes of pleasure,
that they are always considered as inconsistent with mourning. Decency,
informed by nature, never admits them into those places where tears and
affliction are predominant.

_Countess._ "The festivals in the country are never celebrated without
garlands, and the entertainments of the polite are ushered in by a
flower. If the winter denies them that gratification, they have recourse
to art. A young bride, in all the magnificence of her nuptial array,
would imagine she wanted a necessary part of her ornaments, if she did
not improve them with a sprig of flowers. A queen, amidst the greatest
solemnities, though she is covered with the jewels of the crown, has an
inclination to this rural ornament; she is not satisfied with mere
grandeur and majesty, but is desirous of assuming an air of softness and
gaiety, by the mediation of flowers.

_Prior._ "Religion itself, with all its simplicity and abstraction, and
amidst the abhorrence it professes to theatrical pomp, which rather
tends to dissipate the heart, than to inspire it with a due reverence
for sacred mysteries, and a sensibility of human wants, permits some of
its festivals to be celebrated with boughs, and chaplets of flowers."

[66] In his Diary is the following entry:--"1658, 27 Jan. After six fits
of an ague, died my son Richard, five years and three days old onely,
but, at that tender age, a prodigy for witt and understanding; for
beauty of body, a very angel; for endowment of mind, of incredible and
rare hopes. He was all life, all prettinesse. What shall I say of his
frequent pathetical ejaculations uttered of himselfe: _Sweete Jesus,
save me, deliver me, pardon my sins, let thine angels receive me!_ So
early knowledge, so much piety and perfection! Such a child I never saw!
for such a child I blesse God in whose bosome he is!"

Nanteuil's portrait is prefixed to his _Sylva_, 1664; and a fine copy of
the same, by Bartolozzi, is prefixed to Hunter's _Sylva_. Worlidge
engraved a fine portrait of him, prefixed to his _Sculptura_. Gaywood