GLEANINGS ON GARDENS. 79 



nothing is wanting but remunerating wages, good 

 living, and kind treatment, to bring them back to 

 those honest, industrious, and obedient habits, for 

 which their forefathers in the same situation of life 

 were distinguished.' 



I need make no apology to my reader for insert- 

 ing The Funeral Oration of a Peasant, from the pen 

 of the celebrated Monsieur Mercier: 'Passing by a 

 village, I saw a company of peasants, their eyes 

 dejected and wet with tears, who were entering a 

 temple. The sight struck me ; I ordered the carriage 

 to stop, and followed them in. I saw in the middle 

 of the temple the corpse of an old man, in the habit 

 of a peasant, whose white hairs hung down to 

 the ground. The pastor of the village mounted a 

 small eminence, and said, "My fellow-countrymen, 

 the man you here see was for ninety years a benefactor 

 to mankind. He was the son of a husbandman, and 

 in his infancy his feeble hands attempted to guide the 

 plough. As soon as his legs could support him, he 

 followed his father in the furrows. When years had 

 given him that strength for which he long wished, he 

 said to his father, ' Cease from your labours ;' and from 

 that time each rising sun has seen him till the 

 ground, sow, plant, and reap the harvest. He has 

 cultivated more than two thousand acres of fresh 

 land. He has planted the vine in all the country 



