104 THE FLORIST. 



with an elevated sense of their character ; you will teach them that 

 they have a status and position to maintain, and while the cringing 

 prejudice to rank will disappear, a better feeling near akin to love 

 will take its place. 



Now supposing, only for the sake of argument, that all are agreed 

 on this general view, one great objection will be raised, viz. How will 

 you get over the expense ? And this I am prepared to find urged as 

 an insuperable barrier ; yet, when fairly examined, it becomes a pro- 

 moter of the very end we seek to gain ; for if the improvement of the 

 village poor be the object sought, the less money spent wastefully, in 

 drink or otherwise, the more likely are we to arrive at the end desired. 

 And put it thus : if, instead of a farm-labourer spending his money in 

 superfluous " barley-water," he be induced to alter the channel, and 

 dispose of it in adding beauty and comfort to his village home, who 

 can deny but that, with the proceeds, his garden might be kept 

 "a -growing all a-blowing" from one year's end to the other? 

 Yet bear in mind, that the end is not achieved when the eye alone 

 is pleased and gratified ; his mind, his intellect, his whole moral being 

 cannot but be improved by the sermons preached by those sweet 

 silent floral lips. But to gain the real and full benefit of this, he 

 must previously be taught to know how this and that is done ; why 

 the habit and nature of this or that particular flower require a diffe- 

 rent treatment from its fellow. If he be not taught this, he will be 

 too apt to look upon success or failure as the result of chance, the 

 most fatal of all doctrines for the poor to hold. And when taught 

 this distinctive difference in flowers, may he not perhaps turn his 

 thoughts in-doors, and apply the same principle to his children as 

 to his plants, and while he metes out an equal amount of love, kind- 

 ness, and attention to them all, yet learns to distinguish their several 

 characteristics of disposition, and bring them up accordingly ? And 

 •when, in after life, he reaps his reward, who shall deny the influence 

 attributable to Floriculture and the little village-garden, with the 

 happy home they helped to make ? 



But let us for a moment analyse the matter, to see how affairs will 

 stand ; and it must have been observed that instruction and expense 

 form the subject-matter of the above remarks. 



Now, in this case as in so many others, theory must precede and 

 become auxiliary to practice; the instruction must be given as a 

 means to the result ; for unless an interest be excited, and the mind 

 be brought to confirm the pleasure of the eye, the basis will be weak, 

 and the ephemeral character which has hitherto marked the many 

 well-intentioned efforts in this direction, will be again the cause of 

 disappointment. 



How, then, shall we sow this all-important seed ? Who is there 

 in a rural parish ready, in a kind, familiar way, to give this general 

 knowledge to the poor ? And here, let me remark, is the point where 

 the Vicar, my Lord, Sir John, and the Squire, may work far more 

 effectively, and with the assurance of arousing far more grateful feel- 

 ings, than any mere amount of " so much money" can produce. The 

 poor instinctively pay homage and respect to superiority of intellect ; 



