Vi THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



purchase of a thousand acres or more of wooded land, as near 

 as practicable to every large city, to be kept as a preserve, 

 and to be used also as a place for the study of natural history, 

 and for summer recreation. The most wild and uncultivated 

 spot in the vicinity should be selected, and one that is already 

 partially covered with wood of a spontaneous growth. The 

 tract ought to comprehend a great diversity of surface within 

 its limits, and a small lake or stream. This spot should be 

 preserved from age; to age, in its primitive state of wildness, 

 save that it should be sufficiently cleared of tangled under- 

 growth to render it accessible to visitors, and agreeably inter- 

 sected with footpaths, some of which should be of sufficient 

 width to admit of a drive in an ordinary chaise or wagon. 



I am fully aware that pleasure ought not to be the chief 

 aim of life : I am equally well convinced that the best pleas- 

 ures are such as do not interfere with the proper business of 

 life. All vicious amusements lead, not only to the neglect of 

 useful pursuits, but also to extravagance and dishonesty ; but 

 a young man would not take what does not belong to him, 

 that he might attend a picnic party in the woods, or take a 

 botanical walk. The expenses consequent upon such an ex- 

 cursion would not exceed the pecuniary means of the hum- 

 blest clerk or apprentice ; and, when rambling in these 

 grounds, the most obtuse intellect could not avoid catching a 

 little of that inspiration that distinguishes such a man as Lin- 

 naeus or Audubon from a mere bog-trotter. Nature would 

 here be seen in her most interesting aspects, and many, who 

 were previously enamoured of vice, might learn in these re- 

 treats to aspire after purer and more rational pleasures. 



The good influences encountered in this place would be 

 greater and more numerous than in the solitary forest, as the 

 grounds would be accompanied by numerous objects calcu- 

 lated to draw attention not only to the works of nature, but 

 also to various subjects of artistic study. Here, on a little 

 tablet of marble or freestone, is a poetic incription, suggest- 

 ing a pleasant moral, and teaching the young mind how to 

 draw lessons from nature. In another place is an opening in 

 a wood, that looks out directly upon a lovely prospect, reveal- 



