78 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1880. 



incorporated to "advance science," tlie Worcester County 

 Horticultural Society only bears its share of the common bur- 

 den. " Milh'ons for defence, bnt not a cent for tribute !" was 

 the cry of our fathers. Shall we tamely submit, longer, to such 

 wanton injustice ? 



The Statutes, — which exempt from Taxation — " houses of 

 religious worship," — strive, in a feeble measure, to protect the 

 tax-paying Issachar, by the saving clause that 



" Portions of such houses appropriated for pui-poses other than re- 

 ligious worship, shall be taxed at the value thereof to the owuers of 

 the houses." 



How many dollars, think you, will the City Treasury derive 

 from that source? which, were the spirit of the law observed, 

 should be so rich in returns? You may imagine that no "por- 

 tions of such houses " are mis-" appropriated." Possibly, your 

 innocence is justified. And yet it sounds somewhat strange, 

 reading over the programme of a course of Lectures announced 



to be delivered in the " Chapel of the Church," on the 



"Lyric Poets in their relation to Music." Goethe, and Burns; 

 Scott, and Tennyson; Longfellow, and Moore; join hands on this 

 new Walvurgis Naclit; but the Witches-Dance is transferred to 

 the House of God ! For the sum of One Dollar and fifty cents 

 ($1.50), the chronic hunger after righteousness might be harmo- 

 niously appeased " during the season :" or, if you only craved 

 the waters of life at a " single admission," thirty-five cents would 

 be required, as you assuaged your thirst to the pious tune of 



" Believe me, if all those endearing young charms." 

 Was there ever aught like it, since that avatar of the new dis- 

 pensation when, after some QmXxQvaQ pirouette of Ellsler, Margaret 

 hugged Ralph Waldo in her ecstasy, exclaiming: — This, indeed, 

 is Poetry ! the Sage replying, in calm self-poise, No, Margaret ! 

 it is Religion ! 



Impose " burdens grievous to be borne " upon Horticulture, 

 for its deficiencies as a " Science," Bnt " temper the wind to the 

 shorn lambs" of a chapel wherein, for gain. Little's songs are 

 accompanied 



" To the Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders !" 

 The taxation of other people to maintain a worship that we are 



