PREFACE. Ill 



piness. " In the midst of the continual movement which 

 agitates a democratic community," says the most philosophi- 

 cal writer who has yet discussed our institutions, " the tie 

 which unites one generation to another, is relaxed or broken ; 

 every man readily loses the trace of the ideas of his forefath- 

 ers, or takes no care about them." 



The love of country is inseparably connected with the 

 love of home. Whatever, therefore, leads man to assemble 

 the comforts and elegancies of life around his habitation, 

 tends to increase local attachments, and render domestic life 

 more delightful ; thus not only augmenting his own enjoy- 

 ment, but strengthening his patriotism and making him a 

 better citizen. And there is no employment or recreation 

 which affords the mind greater or more permanent satisfac- 

 tion, than that of cultivating the earth and adorning our own 

 property. " God Almighty first planted a garden ; and, in- 

 deed, it is the purest of human pleasures," says Lord Bacon. 

 And as the first man was shut out from the garden^ in the 

 cultivation of which no alloy was mixed with his happiness, 

 the desire to return to it seems to be implanted by nature, 

 more or less strongly, in every heart. 



In Landscape Gardening the country gentleman of leisure 

 finds a resource of the most agreeable nature. While there 

 is no more rational pleasure than that derived from its prac- 

 tice by him, who 



" Plueks life's roses in his quiet fields," 



the enjoyment drawn from it, (unlike many other amuse- 

 ments.) is unembittered by the after recollection of pain or 

 injury inflicted on others, or the loss of moral rectitude. In 

 rendering his home more beautiful, he not only contributes 

 to the happiness of his own family, but improves the taste, 

 and adds loveliness to the country at large. There is, 

 perhaps, something exclusive in the taste for some of the 

 fine arts. A collection of pictures, for example, is compara- 

 tively shut up from the world, in the private gallery. But 

 the sylvan and floral collections, — the groves and gardens, 



