must exert on the manners and feelings of the com- 

 munity, should a taste for its splendid productions 

 l)ecome a prevalent one. Mankind have found by 

 experience, that the contemplation of what is grace- 

 ful or beautiful, serves to correct and refine the taste, 

 to expand and elevate the understanding, to soften 

 and purify the heart. How these results are pro- 

 duced, it is for the metaphysician to explain, if he 

 can ; the results themselves are not the less real nor 

 the less manifest. It is on this principle, that the 

 fine arts have been so carefully cherished by the 

 ablest statesmen of older communities. No one, 

 acquainted with the history or condition of those 

 communities, can doubt, that those arts have done 

 much to counteract the evils of defective systems of 

 government, and to supply the w^ant of general edu- 

 cation. With us, their progress must be for a long 

 time, for obvious and cogent reasons, extremely lim- 

 ited, — at least, this must be said of those two most 

 delicate arts, painting and sculpture. 



It is, therefore, a most fortunate circumstance, that 

 we can supply their place with other elegant pur- 

 suits, and, among these, that of which I am now 

 speaking, surely deserves a most conspicuous rank. 

 If the assiduous contemplation of choice specimens 

 of art is not only a pleasing but a most useful occu- 

 pation, it is certainly something more than a mere 

 frivolous amusement, to contemplate these lovely 

 forms of vegetable life, with which Horticulture 

 renders us conversant, which, to say the least, are 

 neither less curious nor less splendid. If an exqui- 

 site taste for the beauties of fine pictures is to be 



