26 



an increased degree of taste and refinement, and a 

 more ardent desire to become familiar "vvitli tlie great 

 and pervading influences tliat are so closely allied 

 witli the subject. It would not be considered a flat- 

 tering enconium to any Horticultural Society, tliat 

 tbey were merely exliibitors. The display is only 

 intended to sow the seed which is calculated to pro- 

 duce an enduring love of the science, and to show in 

 what perfection nature can appear by the gifted hand 

 of the cultivator. There is nothing in creation but 

 has its design and use, and is bestowed for some valu- 

 able purpose, and yet it may not create our admiration 

 or fill the eye with its beauty , and from these causes 

 it may never have met with a proper appreciation. 

 The rock whose base is in the deep, and whose sum- 

 mit reaches to the clouds, may present to the mind of 

 the observer, as he casts his eye on its rugged peak, 

 or the angry surge that dashes around its fretted base 

 far more of the teriffic than the beautiful, and yet it 

 is the most potential subject he can discover to illumi- 

 nate his mind with a proper conception of the sublime, 

 and the grandeur and magnificence of creation. It is 

 often a source of regret, that by familiarity with that 

 which is constantly before us, it loses not only the 

 charm of curiosity, but frequently its moral as well as 

 its natural sublimity. We may daily pass the deserted 

 highway, and amid its rustic hedges, not notice the 

 beautiful wild flowers that cluster in our pathway, and 

 forget that they are watered by the same hand that 

 gives life and vigor to the huge oak. As well as that. 



