164 JUNE. 



they perish ; many are flung heedlessly away, are 

 dashed on the ground, or are set upon a stone or a 

 post to be thrown at : and all this outraging of Na- 

 ture in her sweetest season and solitudes, all this 

 infliction of agonies on those young, tender things, 

 just awoke to existence, and that would have filled 

 field and forest with music and rejoicing, are done 

 with the most callous and thorough ignorance of 

 wrong. It proceeds from the want of better teach- 

 ing ; from the want of that moral training which the 

 children of our working class so much need ; that 

 necessary education, which consists not so much in 

 reading and writing, as in the awakening of the 

 moral sense, the exercise of the moral principles, 

 and the humane sympathies, the inculcation of that 

 religion which consists not in cant, but in " doing 

 justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before 

 God." It is the duty of every man who loves the 

 holy beauty of Nature, and his fellow man, to con- 

 sider seriously by what means this better tone of 

 popular feeling may be produced. 



The flower-garden is in the height of its splen- 

 dour. Roses of almost innumerable species, I have 

 counted no less than fourteen in a cottage garden, 

 lilies, jasmins, speedwells, rockets, stocks, lupines, 

 geraniums, pinks, poppies, valerians, red and blue ; 

 mignonette, etc., and the glowing rhododendron 

 abound. 



It is the very carnival of Nature, and she is pro- 

 digal of her luxuries. It is luxury to walk abroad, 

 indulging every sense with sweetness, loveliness, and 



