VARIOUS METHODS OF HEATING DESCRIBED IN DETAIL. 195 



flue.^ It originated at Polmaise Gardens, from the following 

 circumstances : A church in the neighborhood of that place 

 had been warmed by a hot-air furnace, similar to those used in 

 dwelling-houses in this country. A gardener at that place 

 examined it, and thought it a good plan to warm his hot-houses ; 

 accordingly, he applied something of the same kind to heat his 

 vinery. The thing was entirely new to the worthy gardener, 

 as well as to his employer, who sent an account of it to Dr. 

 Lindley, of the Gardener's Chronicle, who forthwith espoused 

 the system, extolled it to the skies, and induced various individ- 

 uals to adopt it ; and those who would not, he straightway de- 

 nounced as interested and dishonest men. The gardening com- 

 munity arose in arms, and waged war against their theoretical 

 foes, until its so-called originators were confounded at the amount 

 of opposition excited. No controversy connected with gardening 

 was ever carried on with so much virulence as this one on Pol- 

 maise heating ; and no system has been so severely tested, to 



* The premature encomiums so liberally lavished upon this system, by 

 the zeal of its promoters, have neither shamed imposture nor reclaimed 

 credulity. Deceptions seldom stand long against acpurate experiments, 

 and the mere charm of novelty soon vanishes, when economy and util- 

 ity are both against it. The desire of notoriety, if nothing else, has too 

 often induced parties to impose on the credulity of those who have not 

 science enough to investigate its principles, nor practice enough to dis- 

 cover its defects. Nothing can more plainly show the necessity of doing 

 something, and the difficulty of finding something to do, to obtain these 

 paltry ends, than the getting up of this method of heating hot-houses ; 

 and this, too, by those who know, or ought to know, better, and who 

 ought to have rejected it with contempt. When a system has no intrin- 

 sic value, it must necessarily owe its attractions to theoretical embellish- 

 ment, and catch at all advantages which the art of writing can supply. 

 Trifles always require exuberance of ornament ; the building which has 

 no strength or utility, can be valued only for the novelty of its charac- 

 ter, or the money which it cost. It is certain that the advocate of a 

 new system is less satisfied by its failure, than its success, even when 

 no part of its failure can be imputed to himself, and when the fruits of 

 his labor are tested by those who can discover their real worth. No 

 man has a right, in things admitting of gradation, to throw the whole 

 odium upon his opponents, and totally to exclude investigation and in- 

 quiry, by a haughty consciousness of his own excellence. 



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