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abounding evervwiicre v.ith luscious fruitage, aud wreathed with 

 sweetest flowers. This hope is the ultimatum of all outward culture, 

 the crowning point of all outward earthly bliss. Even the ancient 

 prophet places his joyfully anticipated millennium in a garden, when 

 he predicts that " the wilderness and solitary plain shall be glad, 

 (or fruitful,) and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." 



In the progress of that civilization which is to beautify, perfect, 

 and bless the earth, first comes the wilderness, with hunting and 

 fishing, and an immethodical, careless, halfsavagc cultivation of the 

 soil ; next, the farm, with its careful system and abundant products ; 

 and lastly, and fuialli/, the garden, with its various and delicious 

 fruits, fit food for the immortals. And, if the civilization of our own 

 land and the world at large is to be judged by its gardens, or even 

 by its systematic and well- tilled farms, we can hardly yet be regarded 

 as having emerged from the original wilderness. 



Every friend of culture cannot but earnestly feel that the end and 

 aim of all outward civilization, is to bring back to man the ancient 

 Paradise ; and a desire to feed again on the fruits that nourished his 

 joyful days of primeval happiness, gives him no peace, till, lo ! again 

 the vines and the orchards gladden the hillsides, and the trees, 

 bending down with their golden, perfumed bounty, win him back to 

 the bliss of Eden, that seemed once to have forsaken the world 

 forever. 



The table of refined civilization is not a table of the hunting 

 ground, the wilderness, or even of the farm only ; but of the garden. 

 Think, for a moment, of the ancient Adam — the primitive man of 

 Chaldee story — his hands dripping with gore, slaying and dressing 

 a fattened ox, or an overgrown swine, while the lovely Eve, with 

 smirched and greasy fingers, is peppering the roasting spare-rib on 

 the Paradisial hearth. How much more delicate, refined, and beauti- 

 ful — how much more inviting and seductive — a table covered with 

 melting and delicious strawberries, with gushing raspberries sending 

 forth their delicate aroma, and fair bunches of the ruby cherry ; or 

 crowned with delicious downy peaches, luscious golden pears, or 

 glowing apples with their shining waxen surface, and transparent 

 clusters of rich luxurious grapes with their " purple light," not to 

 speak of the various spring melons, and countless lesser fruits. 



I am aware that in a report of a Society, distinguished by having 

 Marshall P. Wilder for its President, and including among its mem- 



