THE PRESIDENT OF THE MASS. HORT. SOCIETY. 



15 



frankness with which the inquiring stranger 

 or the curious friend is met, who may visit 

 the Hall of the Society, or the Garden of its 

 President, for the purpose of learning the 

 occult mysteries of the earMest of the arts. 



Indeed, the Massachusetts Society, of 

 late, has begun to exert an influence far 

 more powerful than that of mere local soci- 

 eties devoted to the improvement of the 

 arts of culture : and what, truly, may we 

 not hope from its effect, when such men as 

 Abbott Lawrence, are heard publicly to 

 declare that even in the act of choo.sing a 

 mechanic, he would go out of his way to 

 find one who " had been seen on Saturday 

 night taking home a floxver-'pot under his 

 arm.'''' The usual exhibitions of the Society, 

 perhaps the largest, in a pomological point 

 of view, in the world, are now visited by 

 delegates and committees, as well as by 

 great numbers of strangers, from all parts 

 of the Union. The first desire for an or- 

 chard of fine fruit, the first yearning for a 

 beautiful garden, have been awakened, 

 while the beholder of some rudely culti- 

 vated farm has gazed on the paradise of 

 perfect productions assembled at its Sep- 

 tember shows. Its weekly exhibitions are 

 also frequently the elegant reunions of much 

 of the intelligence, wit and beauty of the 

 splendid metropolis of New-England, as 

 well as of the working gardeners them- 

 selves. 



The taste for flowers and fruits, and for 

 all that is attractive in rural life, is thus 

 begotten and difl'used in all classes of so- 

 ciety. The New-England character, which 

 has already made its mark upon the age, 

 by its energy, enterprise and thrift, will 

 soon also be found laboring everywhere in 

 the good work of making the wilderness to 

 blossom as the rose. Not. content with 

 clearing forests, planting new states, and 

 diffusing education as freely as the sun- 1 



shine itself, it is easy to see that it also 

 strives to be foremost in teaching the ele- 

 gancies of life, especially in the knowledge 

 and love of gardens, which we see in pro- 

 gress about Boston. Do we need a better 

 and more elevated future, for the rural life 

 of all America? May we, under her exam- 

 ple, live to see our whole country, unrival- 

 led as it is in natural advantages of soil 

 and climate, overspread with smiling gar- 

 dens and fruitful orchards — spells that bind 

 men strongly to their homes — filled with 

 the choicest productions of Flora and Po- 

 mona ! and these, too, not held forever by 

 a few great and privileged landlords, but 

 the property of the numberless cultivators 

 of the soil, a soil where truly every man 

 may " sit under his own vine." Ed. 



If there is any one class of citizens which 

 deserves at the present moment especially 

 the respect and admiration of their coun- 

 trymen, it is, perhaps, the merchants of 

 Boston. 



To indomitable energy and enterprise, in 

 acquiring wealth, they add a spirit of wis- 

 dom and philanthropy, and a faith in the 

 progress of Man in the use of it, which at 

 once does honor to the city in which they 

 live, and raises the character of commercial 

 pursuits more than all the honors of knight- 

 hood. 



It would be malting too long a catalogue 

 were we to enumerate even the most con- 

 spicuous public benefits which Massachu- 

 setts has derived from this intelligent and 

 high-minded class of her sons. Number- 

 less public charities have been founded 

 and supported : public and free schools 

 planned and sustained ; lectures given to 

 the public ; new worlds of thought opened 

 to the blind; the deaf and dumb brought 

 into correspondence with their fellow men; 

 poor artists sent abroad to develop their 

 Heaven-bestowed talents ; colleges richly 

 endowed, and a great Scientific School 

 opened cheaply to every citizen of the Com- 

 monwealth for instruction in sciences appli- 

 cable to all the useful industries of life. 



