356 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



under which their cultivation is carried on; to protect plants 

 whose frail nature requires protection ; and by every possible 

 means to stimulate and bring to perfection those plants and 

 fruits which seem to demand the same assiduous and parental 

 care as the young of the animal creation.* 



Few of the country houses belonging to persons whose means 

 allow of such indulgences, are without forcing-beds, green 

 houses, and conservatories. Many persons, whose means are 

 restricted, with a high refinement of taste, sacrificing the com 

 mon pleasures of a frivolous and inferior character, prefer this 

 far higher class of enjoyments and luxuries. In these green 

 houses and conservatories, the gayest flowers, the most precious 

 exotic plants, and the richest fruits, are cultivated. Many of 

 these conservatories, filled with the choicest varieties of flowering 



* I wish we knew more of vegetable life. Indeed, what branch of science is 

 there, of which we have not reason to wish we knew more? The microscope, 

 under those modern improvements which have increased its power, and conse 

 quently extended the field of its triumphs in a most astonishing degree, is con 

 stantly bringing new wonders to light ; disclosing the curious and complex 

 structure of the vegetable world ; and enabling us to watch in some plants, in 

 their wonderful frame-work, the rapid circulation of the streams of life. Such 

 discoveries almost make us feel that the man who would wantonly pluck a lily 

 from its stem, and scatter its leaves to the winds, or would trample a damask rose 

 upon the ground, offers an offence to conscious life, and casts an indignity upon 

 some of the most beautiful expressions of the divine skill and beneficence. 



I have recently had the pleasure of looking through as powerful an instrument, 

 of this kind, as human art has perhaps as yet been able to produce. Leaves, 

 woods of different kinds, and different insects, were presented upon the field of 

 vision, and exhibited a structure so various, complicated, and exquisitely finished? 

 that one seemed endued with a new sense, and almost born into a new world. 



I often hear it said that divine revelation is complete and full, and that we 

 must look for nothing more. It may be so with a written word ; though I know 

 of no right which any human mind has to limit the dispensations of Infinite 

 Wisdom ; and with the most reverential gratitude for what lias been given, I 

 confess there are many more things, than have been revealed, which my impa 

 tient curiosity is thirsting to know. But the revelations of the natural world 

 seem only just now begun. The telescope and the microscope are unfolding 

 many a book hitherto closed and sealed, and pouring a flood of light upon fields 

 of wonders which have not before been brought within the reach of human 

 vision, and disclosing objects, forms, structures, contrivances, modes of being, of 

 activity, of life, and of enjoyment, which force upon the mind a sense of the 

 Creator s skill, goodness, and power, absolutely oppressive, and awaken a feeling 

 of reverence and adoration wholly incapable of utterance. We may presently 

 come to understand the organization, for respiration and digestion, of the vegetable 

 as we do of the animal world ; and one is scarcely less mysterious than the other. 



