THE SIX OF SPADES. 105 



the sense of sight and of smell should minister only, so 

 far as gardening is concerned, to the gratification of 

 our tongues and throats, and cease to co-operate with 

 the heart and brain. Why should not that love of 

 the beautiful which is innate in every exile from 

 Eden, be encouraged by our pastors and masters, with 

 as much care and attention as the Greek grammar ? 

 Why should not our schools and there are many, 

 thank Heaven, in which refinement of taste is no 

 longer derided, and where it is no longer considered 

 effeminate to avow an admiration of the works of 

 God why should not these schools have their 

 garden as well as their playground ? and why should 

 not those who will hereafter have gardens of their 

 own be instructed in that happiest and most useful 

 of all sciences, horticulture ? What arts could be 

 better worth learning than those of making our homes 

 beautiful, of providing ourselves with a never-failing 

 source of innocent gratification, and of supplying to 

 those around us the continual refreshment of delicious 

 fruits, with a healthful abundance of those vegetables 

 which are adjuncts, as excellent as they are economi- 

 cal, to every man's daily food ? 



From these plaints you will infer, my friends, that 

 I had small encouragement in my earlier years to 

 foster my first love of flowers, and that I received no 

 instruction whatever in the gentle craft of the spade. 

 Once or twice during my schoolhood the old light 

 emitted a feeble ray, and I was so far illumined on a 

 special occasion as to lay out ninepence on a fuchsia. 

 It was received, I recollect, on its arrival from the 

 nursery, with a great profession of regard and 



