INTRODUCTION. Ill 



pered. Our intercourse with distant nations having en- 

 lightened the mind and refined the taste, men began to 

 turn their attention to an employment, the most rational, 

 because the most beneficial both to mind and body, as 

 it is the most ancient and the most honourable. "The 

 Lord took the man, and put him into the garden, to 

 dress it, and to keep it," not to behold it only, and to 

 revel in the enjoyment of the fruits, which unless earned 

 by toil would cloy ; but to rear the tender plant, and prop 

 the beauteous blossom ; to lend a staff to the gadding 

 pea, or turn and fertilize the barren mould ; these were 

 the occupations that endeared man to earth, brought new 

 relish to each fruit, and gave that humane delight which 

 so greatly contributes to banish spleen and sullen sadness 

 from the terrestrial globe. 



Amongst civilized nations in ancient times, we find the 

 greatest and wisest monarchs both studied and honoured 

 this useful pursuit. Of Solomon it is written, that " he 

 made cedars to be as sycamore trees that are in the vale 

 for abundance ;" and that he wrote a history of all the 

 plants, from the cedar of Libanus to the moss growing 

 on the wall.* 



The Chinese have ever been celebrated for their atten- 

 tion to horticultural pursuits. Among the peasants in 

 some parts of China, it is the custom to reward those 

 whose gardens or fields are cultivated with the greatest 

 care, by making them Mandarins of their class. It is 

 related by the historians of China, that the Emperor Xi- 

 Hoam-Ti, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign (213 years 

 B. C.) ordered all the books in his dominions to be burnt, 

 except those on Physic, Agriculture, and Astrology, 

 which shews that despotism itself regarded this art as 

 sacred. 



* This is the literal meaning of the passage, and not hyssop. 



