THE WATER LILY.—It is a marvel whence this perfect flower derives its loveliness and perfume, springing, as it does from the black mud over which the river sleeps, and where lurk the slimy eel and speckled frog, and the mud turtle, whom continual washing cannot cleanse. It is the very same black mud out of which the yellow lily sucks its obscene life and noisome odour. Thus we see, too, in the world, that some persons assimilate only what is ugly and evil from the same moral circumstances which supply good and beautiful results – the fragrance of celestial flowers – to the daily life of others.—Margaret Fuller.
“The Water Lily.” Leeds Times (UK), 9 Jan. 1847, pp. 6.
