DUBLIN BOTANICAL, GARDEN. 187 



whatever from the highest classes in society, and none whatever 

 from the lowest classes, who visited it in great numbers ; and who, 

 coming out of their damp cellars, and their confined streets, and 

 their dark and offensive holes, and fastnesses, and common 

 sewers, no doubt found in it, with their children, almost a transi 

 tion from earth to heaven ; and here breathed the perfumes of the 

 divine beneficence, and contemplated, with a felicity which even 

 princes might envy, the exuberant tokens of God s goodness in 

 the flowers and fruits of the earth, radiant with a celestial beauty. 

 There were other persons, whom he chose to denominate the 

 vulgar rich, who were not so abstemious, and who required to 

 be watched. It is to be hoped, as education advances, a higher 

 tone of moral sentiment will prevail, and that every thing of taste 

 or art, designed for general gratification, will be secure against 

 injury or defacement, so that the odious notices and cautions, 

 which are now so constantly seen in such places against depre 

 dation, may themselves be deemed a public insult, and the very 

 idea of violating an honorable confidence, and abusing the public 

 beneficence, may so trouble a man s conscience, that he shall 

 desire to run away from himself. 



This garden and grounds, and its conservatories, are designed 

 to furnish specimens of all the most valuable and curious native 

 and exotic plants and fruits ; and, in addition to their present 

 erections, the proprietors are now about to build a conservatory 

 four hundred feet long, and seventy feet wide, with a height pro 

 portioned. The grounds are always open to the studious and 

 scientific, and a course of botanical lectures is given, with the 

 illustrations to be found here. 



Botany may here be studied to great advantage, as portions of 

 the ground are allotted to the perfect arrangement of the plants, 

 according to the classification and orders of Linnscus, and in 

 another part, according to the natural order ; and for the benefit 

 of agricultural students and farmers, specimens are cultivated 

 and neatly arranged of all the useful vegetables and grasses, 

 with their botanical and their vulgar names affixed to them, with 

 specimens likewise of the most pernicious weeds, that the farmer 

 may see what to choose and what to avoid. The collection is 

 already extensive, and is constantly becoming enlarged. It 

 is difficult to overrate the value of such establishments, both for 

 use and for pleasure, for their pecuniary, their intellectual, and 



