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industry. It is a banquet of reason, at which wisdom and health 

 preside, and where the amphictyons of genius and taste revel, in 

 the unsatiating luxuries of nature and intellect. 



The holy scriptures teach us, that the Almighty sanctioned 

 the peerless beauties and refined pleasures of a garden, by plant- 

 ing that of Eden, and consecrating it as a terrestrial paradise, 

 for the progenitors of the human race. The Elysian Fields 

 were the heaven of heathen mythology, and to each part of their 

 prototypes, on earth, was assigned a tutelary divinity. The 

 promised rewards, of the Mahomedan religion, are the perennial 

 felicities of celestial gardens. 



The bards, scholars, and philosophers of the classic ages, 

 have transmitted descriptions of the picturesque plantations of 

 the ancients, from those in which Homer places the regal palace 

 of Alcinous and the rustic dwelling of Laertes, to the magnificent 

 villas of Pliny and Lucullus. 



By numerous works of imagination and instruction, which 

 have rendered their authors illustrious, and established epochs in 

 the grand cycle of events, since the revival of letters, we are en- 

 abled to ascertain the actual state of cultivation, to perceive the 

 relative estimation in which it has been held, and to appreciate 

 the beneficial consequences of progressive ameliorations, from 

 the first humble efforts of the anchorites of St. Basil and St. Bene- 

 dict, to the splendid developments of individual enterprise and 

 public patronage, which characterize the period in which we 

 live. 



The scientific relations of Horticulture are numerous, and re- 

 quire an extensive acquaintance with the various branches of 

 Natural History and Physics. Botany, Mineralogy, Hydraulics, 

 Chemistry, Architecture and Mechanics are called upon to fur- 

 nish their several contributions ; and it is the special province of 

 the artist, to render them subservient to his practical operations, 

 by a judicious application of each to its appropriate purpose. 



In this pursuit, as in all others, practice has been too long 

 estranged from scientific theory. Each has had its professors 

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