No. 216.] 469 



Mr. President, can there be found a spot on earth so favorable to 

 develop and disseminate every species of product susceptible of human 

 cultivation as Ancient Palestine? Within the circuit of sixty miles, 

 the formation of the country is particlarly favorable to the richest 

 and choicest productions. Here may be found the climate of every 

 zone; the cold and chilly blasts of the North, and the hot and debil- 

 itating winds that blow over parched and sultry deserts, while in the 

 cen*^re the inhabitants are fanned by delicious and refreshing breezes. 

 This singular country is a perfect jardin des plantes, a botanical 

 garden, without your hot-beds — green-houses and sleepless protec- 

 tion. Here we tread upon a soil which has figured almost as much 

 in the vegetable reign, as it has been transcendently conspicuous fop 

 splendid and thrilling events. The former lords of these mighty 

 mountainous domains took delight in wrestling with the difficulties- 

 of nature; and let us never ungenerously judge that ancient, bold and 

 free race, who constructed those subterranoeus aqueducts and canals on 

 a noble scale, tapping reservoirs in the heart of granitic masses, and 

 in their descent opening passages through the most appalling obsta- 

 cles, turning impracticable barriers, and moistening, sandy and sterile 

 lands in the lower level by means of a thousand secret sluices and 

 ducts, by the present deluded and enslaved tenants of the soil, who 

 have ingloriously suffered these beneficient works to go into dilapi- 

 dation. It is but justice to say that the bounties of nature are beau^ 

 tified by a thousand rare productions; and though the fine sky no 

 more inspires the Hebrew poets, there is still a spirit of liberty which 

 pervades these lonely provinces, and the industry of man is not as 

 elsewhere harassed by predatory encroachments. For agriculture, 

 like commerce, will fly the earth, until it finds a resting place where 

 it may breathe. Hence those plantations of cotton, those mulberry 

 and olive yards that mantle the rugged cliffs or carpet the deep ra- 

 vines. Here the traveller is petrified with astonishment to see vine 

 stocks, rival his own oaks in size, and loves to retreat under leafy 

 arches and broad ceilings of verdure, to lull his senses to voluptuous 

 repose. And here wheat and pulse grow alternately in one annual 

 revolution, and the numerous varieties of plants and flowers, bloom 

 and ripen without effort on the topmost branches. 



The propagation of plants from this nursery has been almost as 

 scattered as her ill-fated people. 



Hence some of the seeds of science and art whi'ch pass so imper- 

 ceptibly from one people to another, found their way into the des- 

 potic dominions of the kings of Persia. Under the patriarchal sway 



