no 



I have already expressed niy opinion upon the benefits likely 

 to accrue from our GardcueVs being men of scientific acquire- 

 ments, and see no necessity to revert to particulars, 1 would 

 however observe a;enerally that as human knowledge on which 

 our institutions are founded must continue to improve, or must 

 deteriorate, few persons will bs found to argue that the latter 

 is desirable — Let us imj)rove as long as "we can. Those who 

 in a diffusion of knowledge see our social order endangered ar- 

 gue perversely. Whilst education is partial, those blessed with 

 it may be proud of their distinction, and obtain undue notions 

 and power by their superiority, but when education becomes 

 general such distinction must cease. 



He is no philosopher who neglects a certain present good, 

 for fear that in some future period it may be abused ; but in 

 the encouragement of Gardening whilst an immediate good is 

 obtained, there is no fear of its perversion in after days. Its 

 diffusion among' the poorer classes is an earnest, or means of 

 more important benefits, even than the present increase of their 

 comfort. The labourer who possesses and delights in the garden 

 appended to his Cottage is generally among the most decent of 

 his class; he is seldom a frequenter of the ale-house; and 

 there are few among them so senseless as not readily to engage 

 in its cultivation when convinced of the comforts and gain 

 derivable from it. When the lower order of a state are con- 

 tented, the abettors of anarchy cabal for the destruction of its 

 civil tranquility in vain, for they have to efface the strongest of 

 all earthly associations, home and its hallowed accompaniments, 

 from the attachment of the labourer, before he will assist in 

 tearing them from others, in the struggle to effect which, he 

 has nothing definite to gain, and all those flowers of life to lose. 



The same reasoning applies with undiminished force to the 

 higher classes. — Everything that tends to endear to a man his 

 home, attaches him with proportionate force to his country 

 that contains it. 



