404 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the workmen, who are usually paid off on Saturday night, do 

 not return to their employment until Tuesday morning, with 

 their senses stupefied, and, usually, their earnings expended, and 

 their families unprovided with bread. From what I have been 

 able to observe, it is different in France. The public grounds 

 and gardens, of the most beautiful description, are thrown open 

 to the public, and, especially on Sunday afternoons, are crowded 

 with well-dressed men, women, and children. At Versailles, at 

 St. Cloud, in the Champs Elysees, and the Garden of Plants, the 

 Garden of the Tuileries, and of the Luxembourg, where not only 

 these beautiful grounds, but the public galleries and palaces, are also 

 open, I have seen several times, on a Sunday, thousands, tens of 

 thousands, twenties of thousands, enjoying the walks, the flowers, 

 the lawns, the shades, the fountains, the statues, the paintings, the 

 most beautiful productions of ancient and of modern art. Here 

 are persons of every grade in society, and thousands of blooming 

 and happy children and young persons ; but not a flower is 

 ever plucked, not a twig broken, not a statue defaced, simply 

 because every thing is put under the protection of their honor. 

 Here is not the slightest irregularity or want of perfectly good 

 manners any where apparent ; no crowding, no shouting, no loud 

 talking, no swearing, no drinking, and no drunkenness ; and the 

 people at the close of the day retire quietly to their own homes, 

 or mingle in the evening in some innocent festivity. This has 

 always given me unaffected pleasure, and I do not know how, 

 by these people, the Sunday afternoon can be more rationally spent. 

 It is obvious what a gain there must be to public morals, 

 whenever we can draw men from pleasures of a low and purely 

 sensual character, ruinous alike to health and morals, and utterly 

 destructive of all self-respect, and give them a taste for pleasures 

 of a purer, and, I may add, a spiritual and intellectual character. 

 The pure and simple love of nature, so liable to become extinct 

 amidst the harassing cares, and labors, and frivolities, and sensual 

 indulgences of city life, is among the most wholesome senti 

 ments which the mind can cherish. The love of the beautiful, 

 of the curious, of the grand and sublime in nature, can never 

 become injuriously excessive ; and as it is, in its own character, 

 perfectly innocent, so we have reason to thank the Great Author 

 of nature, that its resources, and the field of its application, are 

 absolutely unbounded and inexhaustible. 



