GOD might have bade the earth bring forth

Enough for great and small; The oak-tree and the cherry-tree,

Without a flower at all. We might have had enough, enough

For every want of ours, For luxury, medicine, and toil,

And yet have had no flowers.

Our outward life requires them not;

Then wherefore had they birth? To minister delight to man,

To beautify the earth; To comfort man, to whisper hope,

Whene'er his faith is dim, For whoso careth for the flowers

Will care much more for Him.

- Mary Howitt.