1^ PREFACE. 



ti rated, so surely will one vice beget another; which, if nofc 

 eradicated, will multiply to an alarming extent, until its vie 

 tims become a pest to civil society, and a disgrace to 

 mankind. 



Now as happiness is preferable to misery, virtue to vice, 

 knowledge to ignorance, and order to confusion, how impor- 

 tant is it, that those who make pretensions to rationality 

 should employ their leisure hours in a manner calculated to 

 insure the greatest amount of that which is intrinsically 

 valuable. 



What subject can be better calculated to promote such a 

 desideratum than the subject of cultivation, when viewed in 

 all its bearings ? But as we are about treating of Flowers, I 

 shall confine my ideas, as closely as possible, to the object 

 in view ; trusting, that while the hand is employed in culti- 

 vating the transient beauties of a garden, the attentive 

 mind will feast and fare daintily on the study of Nature, and 

 in the end enrich itself with solid and lasting good. As an 

 excitement to such study, the following thoughts are 

 submitted. 



Nature in itself is beautiful, enchantingly beautiful, but it 

 is the province of man to adorn a single spot, to collect 

 about him the scattered and single beauties, and to see, and 

 feel, and enjoy them. Nature is fruitful, inexhaustibly fruit- 

 ful ; but man must improve her fertility, guide it, and give 

 itits most generally useful direction. Nature is full of life, 

 but man is capable of diversifying, elevating, and ennobling 

 this life ; and he is amply rewarded for his labour. 



