BLESSINGS OF GARDENING 73 



betake themselves and their flowers to the neigh- 

 bouring horticultural show the citizen sets up his 

 cucumber-frame in his back-yard his dame her 

 lilacs and alrnond-trees in the front-court the 

 mechanic breeds his prize-competing auriculas the 

 cottager rears his sun-flowers and Sweet- Williams 

 before his door and even the collier sports his 

 " posy jacket " as long, in a word, as this common 

 interest pervades every class of society, so long shall 

 we cling to the hope that our country is destined to 

 outlive all her difliculties and dangers. Not because, 

 like the Peris, we fight with flowers, and build 

 amaranth bowers, and bind our enemies in links of 

 roses but because all this implies mutual interest 

 and intercourse of every rank, and dependence of one 

 class upon another because it promotes an inter- 

 change of kindnesses and favours because it speaks 

 of proprietors dwelling on their hereditary acres, and 

 the poorest labourer having an interest in the soil 

 because it gives a local attachment, and healthy 

 exercise and innocent recreation, and excites a love 

 of the country and love of our own country, and a 

 spirit of emulation, devoid of bitterness because it 

 tells of wealth wisely spent, and competence wisely 

 diffused, of taste cultivated, and science practically 

 applied because, unlike Napoleon's great lie, it does 

 bring " peace to the cottage," while it blesses the 

 palace, and every virtuous home between those wide 

 extremes because it bespeaks the appreciation of 

 what is natural, and simple, and pure teaches men 

 to set the divine law of excellence above the low 



