260 THE WORST OF IT. 



names, is to subscribe to a prelirninary funrl of two hundred and fifty 

 thoasand doilars as a gnarantee of their good faith : this sum will be 

 spent in giving the grounds their preliminary treatment and in laying 

 the foundations of a work that shall be the foremost of its kiud. 



When American naturalists have been furnished with a place 

 where they can study new plants and determine their qualities and 

 uses uuder cultivation, iuvestigate the animal and insect pests of the 

 vegetable kingdom that have injured and still menace local plauta- 

 tions, devise means to aid in providing the growing population of the 

 continent with good things to eat, and plenty of them, prosecute in- 

 quiries into the medicinal virtues of herbs, and, in a word, canvass the 

 whole possibilities for good of the world of plants, we mayexpect to 

 see our country enter upon a period of prosperity not unworthy of our 

 hopes and promises. And many a young man who desires to use his 

 brain and euergy in some pursuit that may be useful to his fellows 

 can receive here an instruetion and a training more valuable than the 

 curricula of the colleges, and embark in a profession obstructed by less 

 competition than law, medicine, or literature. 



A Botanical Garden, then, we should and must have ; and now is 

 the time to set it a-going. The Torrey Botanical Club of Columbia 

 College (mark how the stings of conscience operate !) have already 

 beguu to work in its behalf ; aud subscribers to the fund ought not to 

 be far to seek : the project, wherever it has been spoken of, has met 

 with nothing but approval and encouragement. Such an enterprise is 

 at least as well worth endowing as a town library or a millionaire uni- 

 versity ; and, indeed, the only point that it seems necessary to empha- 

 size in this place is the importance of giving the preliminary fund at 

 once. It will, of course, be ouly the nucleus of many millions more 

 to come ; but, unless it is assured now, the offer of the free site will 

 be withdrawn, and New York will look very foolish. Suppose, too, 

 that Philadelphia, or Chicago, or San Francisco, or Boston, were to 

 profit by our procrastination, and cut in before us ? — But surely this 

 spur is not indispensable to our activity ! Let us achieve our Garden 

 because it is a useful and noble thing to do ; and then the rest of the 

 country may follow in our wtfke. 



^\ Julian Hawthorne. 



THE WORST OF IT. 



AH, faithless ! if Death had bereaved me, at least Death had left 

 me the past, 

 With its strange wild glory of joy that was all too keen to last, 



And that glory had lit up the future, — the sad years yet to be ; 



But now there is naught in the future, as naught in the past, for me : 



I have tracked one skulkiug secret, I have dragged it shrieking out, 

 And the joy of the past is fulfilled with the shame and the horror of 

 doubt. Edward Jay. 



