CAUSES OF SUCCESS. 29 



a sub-committee to inspect the gardens of exhibi- 

 tors, and to prevent imposture. Discouraging 

 facts ! But so it is discouraging to note certain 

 infirmities of slothfulness, selfishness, and ignor- 

 ance in our daily life ; and when we have made 

 ourselves just such Christian gentlemen as we 

 ought to be, let us be severe with our fellow-men. 

 In the interim, suppose we try the experiment of 

 winning them by kindness and love. Suppose we 

 try to convince them, by establishing Working 

 Men's Club-rooms, that a public-house is not the 

 only place for a flower-show, and that it is 

 possible to spend a happy day without degra- 

 dation at night, and sickness to follow in the 

 morning. 



It is high time, however, to leave this digres- 

 sion, and to repeat, that whatever may be the in- 

 firmities of these poor florists, they are eminently 

 successful in the culture of flowers ; and indeed it 

 would be easy to multiply proofs that in Rose- 

 growing as in everything else, earnestness and in- 

 dustry, born of love, 



" Di tutte le arti maestro e amore," 



must achieve success. At a flower-show which 

 takes place annually at Oundle, and at which I 



