220 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Creator. The highest understanding does not stoop 

 when occupied in observing the brilliant colour of a 

 blossom, or the graceful form of a leaf. Hogarth, the 

 great moral painter, a man in all respects of real and 

 original genius, writes thus to his friend Ellis, a dis- 

 tinguished traveller and naturalist: " As for your 

 pretty little seed-cups or vases, they are a sweet con- 

 firmation of the pleasure Nature seems to take in 

 superadding an elegance of form to most of her works, 

 wherever you find them. How poor and bungling 

 are all the imitations of Art! When I have the plea- 

 sure of seeing you next, we will sit down, nai/, kneel 

 down if you will, and admire these things." 



In the progress of this sketch of the various fruits 

 which administer to the comfort of man throughout 

 the globe, we shall endeavour to trace, as far 

 as is possible, the early history and the first lo- 

 calities of those which are more generally esteemed. 

 The information possessed upon these subjects 

 is, however, necessarily limited and vague. The 

 history of many of them belongs to very dis- 

 tant periods ; for, as soon as they were rendered 

 attractive to man by cultivation (and we know that 

 scarcely any wild fruit is of value), a state of civi- 

 lization followed, which of necessity would lead to 

 commercial intercourse. The very first movements 

 of mankind would, in all probability, unsettle the 

 native localities of the fruits ; and as modern expe- 

 rience [shews that their qualities are altered gene- 

 rally for the better by transplantation, it is probable 

 that, in the course of a time by no means long, the 

 fruit which had first attracted the attention of the 

 adventurer in some fertile and favoured spot, would 

 be flourishing in a far superior state upon the inferior 

 soil, or under the inferior climate, where it had re- 

 ceived his subsequent care. It is one of the proudest 

 attributes of man, and one which is most important 



