290 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



covering a trellis or lattice as a screen, and for its gay dress is often 

 made a tenant of the flower garden. As so few culinary vegetables 

 are considered ornamental, we heartily recommend the Nasturtium 

 to the attention of every person having a kitchen garden. Let it be 

 placed in a conspicuous situation. Few things afe more attractive in 

 appearance ; and it is useful as well as beautiful. In addition to the 

 gaiety of its successive blossoms, the fruit, when pickled, is desirable, 

 and by many esteemed superior to capers. The tops, too, by some 

 are used for salad. 



NATURE. Of this word, which occurs so frequently, with sig- 

 nifications so various and so difficultly defined, Boyle has given the 

 following explication f Nature is sometimes used for the author of 

 nature, as, Nature has made man partly corporeal and partly imma- 

 terial ; for Nature, in this sense, may be used the word Creator. 

 Nature sometimes means that on whose account a thing is what it is, 

 and is called, as when we define the nature of an eagle ; for nature, 

 in this sense, may be used for essence, or quality. Nature sometimes 

 means what belongs to a living creature at its nativity, or accrues to 

 it by its birth, as when we say a man is noble by nature, or a child 

 is naturally fro ward. This may be expressed by saying, the man was 

 born so, or the thing was generated such. Nature sometimes means 

 an internal principle of local motion, as we say the stone falls, or the 

 flame rises, by nature ; for this we may say that the motion up or 

 down is spontaneous, or produced by its proper cause. Nature some- 

 times signifies the established course of things corporeal, as nature 

 makes the night succeed the day ; this may be termed established 

 order, or settled course. Nature means sometimes the aggregate of 

 the powers belonging to a body, especially a living one ; as when 

 physicians say that nature is strong, or nature left to herself, will 

 do the cure ; for this may be used constitution, temperament, or 

 structure of the body. Nature is put likewise for the system of the 

 corporeal works of God ; as there is no phoenix or chimera in nature. 

 For nature, thus applied, we may use the world, or the universe. 

 Nature is sometimes, indeed commonly taken for a kind of semi-deity ; 

 in this sense it is best not to use it at all. 



NAVIGATION. No art or profession has appeared more aston- 

 ishing and marvellous than that of navigation, in the state in which 

 it is at present. This cannot be made more evident than by taking 

 a retrospective view of the tottering, inartificial craft to which navi- 

 gation owes its origin ; and by comparing them with the noble and 

 majestic edifices now in use, containing a thousand men, with their 

 provisions, drink, furniture, wearing-apparel, and other necessaries for 

 many months, besides a hundred pieces of heavy ordnance, and carry- 

 ing all this vast apparatus safely, on the wings of the wind, across 

 immense seas. These majestic floating structures are the result of the 

 ingenuity and united labor of many hundreds of hands, and are com- 



