PROLEGOMENA. XCUI. 



of Eden ; and our Lord benjan to suffer in the 

 garden of Gethsamni. There is, therefore, 

 always abundant subject for meditation out of 

 doors. Whether our forefathers, whose piety 

 greatly exceeded ours, used to be struck with 

 this reflection or not, 1 will not pretend to say, 

 but this is certain, that the monks, friars, and 

 pilgrims, of the early ages, were the first culti- 

 vators of botany, and the gardens of convents were 

 the first repositories of curious and useful plants. 

 Labouring continually in corporal as well as in 

 spiritual works of mercy, the religious orders of 

 old collected whatever was useful or beautiful 

 among plants, and converted all which were 

 esculent or medicinal to the use of the poor, who 

 were the continual objects of their solicitude. 



When they finished their hours of prayer, 

 it was to begin hours of instruction ; when they 

 closed their breviaries, it was to open their hearts : 

 they went from the study of the missal to the 

 practice of mercy : and if they hung up their 

 beads, it was to shower down blessings. Life was 

 divided between the adoration of God and the 

 assistance of man, that both parts of charity 

 might be duly exercised. The garden was not 

 merely a place of recreation but of utility ; and 

 a monastery was, in good old Catholic times, 

 the greatest comfort of the neighbourhood in 



which it stood. This is not a chimerical but a 



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