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ness that would weave fancies with flowers, and 

 borrow from their hues a colour for our thoughts ; 

 but if it be, it surely is a weakness at which phi- 

 losophy would rather smile than frown. Lord 

 Bacon says, that the study of botany, and the 

 pleasures to be found in the garden, " are the 

 greatest refreshment to the spirits of man ;" and, 

 perhaps, it was among his shady walks, or in 

 rambling over hills and meadows, that he felt his 

 mind purified from its grosser and more worldly 

 affections, perhaps it was there he forgot that 

 love of power and of place that made him though 

 " the greatest," yet "the meanest of mankind." 

 Sir Isaac Newton was ardently attached to this 

 pursuit. Pope was a celebrated gardener, and 

 often mentions the delight he felt in flowers ; 

 and Lord Peterborough, after all his victories in 

 Spain, did not forget his rustic enjoyments. 

 Addison says, in the Spectator, " I look upon 

 the pleasures which we take in a garden as one 

 of the most innocent delights of human life. A 

 garden was the habitation of our first parents 

 before their fall. It is naturally apt to fill the 

 mind with calmness and tranquillity, and to lay 

 all its turbulent passions at rest. It gives us a 

 great insight into the contrivance and wisdom of 

 Providence, and suggests innumerable subjects 

 for meditation. I cannot but think the very 

 complacency and satisfaction which a man takes 

 in these works of nature, to be a laudable, if^not 

 a virtuous habit of mind." Though all have not 

 a garden to retire to, still all possess the fields ; 



