418 



several other parts of the county, which it is not necessary that 

 I should enumerate. 



The existence of these establishments, their extent and 

 yearly increase indicate the ample patronage which they re- 

 ceive, and speak emphatically in favor of the intellectual, may 

 I not add, the moral improvement of the community. 



In the two great floral kingdoms of nature, the botanical 

 and the human, if we must yield the palm to that which is 

 alike transcendant in the beauty of form and motion, and in 

 the higher attributes of intelligence, innocence, and moral per- 

 fection, yet it can be no derogation to admire, with a rapture 

 bordering upon enthusiasm, the splendid products of the gar- 

 den. What is the heart made of which can find no sentiment 

 in flowers ? 



The vast creation of God, the centre and source of good, 

 is, as I have observed, every where radiant with beauty. In 

 the floral kingdom it appears in an infinite variety ; in an un- 

 stinted and even a richer profusion than in other departments 

 of nature. While these contributions are thrown out so lav- 

 ishly at our feet, and a taste for flowers seems almost an instinct 

 of nature, and is one of the most innocent and refined senti- 

 ments which we can cultivate, let us indulge and gratify it to 

 the utmost extent, wherever leisure, opportunity, and fortune 

 give us the means. There is no danger of an excess, under 

 those reasonable restrictions, which all our sentiments demand 

 " But," says some cynical objector, " flowers are only to please 

 the eye." And why should not the eye be pleased ? What 

 sense may be more innocently gratified ? They are among the 

 most simple, and at the same time among the cheapest luxuries 

 in which we can indulge. 



The taste for flowers, every where increasing among us, is 

 an omen for good. Let us adorn our parlors, doorways, yards, 

 and roadsides, with trees, and shrubs, and flowers. What a 

 delight do they give to the passer-by ! What favorable im- 

 pressions do they at once excite towards those who cultivate 

 them for their own gratification, and find, after all, their chief 



