520 COTTAGE GARDENS ASSOCIATION. 



influence the rest. This is a work in which a little leaven 

 leaveneth the mass. The majority may in the first 

 instance copy only, but they will assuredly end by 

 thinking, understanding, comparing, judging. This habit 

 once contracted and applied to one thing will in due course 

 be extended to others, and gradually the barren waste of 

 mind will become more or less cultivated or fertile ; the 

 labourer, the artisan, and the small tradesman will no 

 longer be the sport of vain, pretentious men or the tool of 

 demagogues, but reasoning beings, who can solve at least 

 some of the plain political problems set before them. If 

 these views be correct, I think it follows that .cottage 

 gardening is not only a valuable means of adult education, 

 but a political safeguard a counterpoise to the pernicious 

 teachings of ignorant or false patriots and likely to prove 

 a material help in the establishment of that order of mind 

 which is usually possessed of a sound political faith. 



I pass on to the MORAL ASPECT. It is unquestionable 

 that men of high moral attributes, rich and poor alike, are 

 naturally drawn to gardening, and I believe it to be equally 

 true that the pursuit of it, whether for profit or as a recrea- 

 tion, produces a love of order and a distaste for low and 

 sordid pleasures. The physical exertion necessary for 

 successful gardening is healthful to the body, and the 

 interest arising from the ever - varying changes in the 

 aspect of vegetables, fruits, and flowers is equally health- 

 ful to the mind, and this has a moral as well as an educa- 

 tional influence. The sequence of events is so rapid, so 

 plain, so beautiful, that even the untutored mind can 

 hardly help having forced upon its attention what we are 

 accustomed to speak of as cause and effect. We sow the 

 seed, and however limited our experience, upheld by hope, 

 we rest assured that we shall see, and usually do see in 

 succession, the germ, the plant, and in some cases the 

 flower and the seed again. The habit of reflection is thus 

 perhaps insensibly acquired and cultivated, and the moral 

 nature is improved. 



