28 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



beer shops into the fresh pure air, interest him in the 

 marvellous works of his God, instead of in the deformities 

 of vice, give him an occupation which will add to his health 

 and the comforts of his family, instead of destroying both, 

 then build Revealed upon Natural Religion, and hope to see 

 that man a Christian. 



In one of the most genial and gratifying notices with 

 which this book has been favoured, the Saturday Reviewer 

 gladdened my heart, confirmed my belief, and stimulated 

 my endeavours, by endorsing these my views on the subject. 

 From this love of flowers, he writes, " may be learned the 

 road, difficult to find in these days, to the inner heart of the 

 lower classes — the key to tastes, dearer to them than beer- 

 swilling — the secret, which, if rightly applied by those who 

 bear spiritual rule over the working man, may do much 

 directly to civilise, and indirectly to Christianise him." 



There are difficulties, of course, in this as in all good works. 

 There are difficulties with regard to cottage-gardening, ev^en 

 in those villages where priest and squire co-operate heartily, 

 and these difficulties are multiplied where men are thick 

 upon the ground, and where at present little interest is taken 

 in the matter, either by the clergy or the rich. These diffi- 

 culties come from the temptations incidental to the annual 



