GENERAL REMARKS. 241 



aspect of comfort and -plenty. The good bishop was 

 amazed. " How is this, my friend ? " said he; " you are 

 the first pastor I have met with having a cheerful face 

 and a plentiful board! Have you any income inde- 

 pendent of your cure ? " "Yes, sire," said the pastor, 

 " I have : my family would starve on the pittance I receive 

 from the poor people that I instruct. If you will walk 

 into the garden, I will show you the stock that yields me 

 such excellent interest." On going into the garden, he 

 showed the bishop a long range of bee-hives. " There," 

 said he, " is the bank from which I draw an annual 

 dividend, and it is one that never stops payment." His 

 harvest of honey enabled him almost to dispense with 

 the use of sugar, leaving him a considerable quantify 

 for disposal in the market; of the coarser portions he 

 made a tolerable substitute for wine, and the sale of the 

 wax nearly paid his shoemaker's bill. Ever afterwards, 

 when any of the clergy complained to the bishop of 

 poverty, he would say to them, " Keep bees ! ' keep 

 bees ! " In this succinct advice — extending it to laity 

 cis well as clergy in rural districts — we heartily join, 

 belie^dng that in this country a ten-fold greater num- 

 ber of hives might be successfiilly kept than are now 

 established. 



In a very practical sense, the oft-repeated lines of Gray 

 are strictly true : — 



" Full many a flower is born to bluSh unseen. 

 And 'waste its sweetness on the desert air." 



K 



