12 THE PHILAD ELPHIA FLORIST. [May 



^W "We solicit communications from the farmers around us, statistical and W'j 

 rp general, with plans of cropping, and feeding, nature of soils in the W 



different districts of this state ; quality of the breed of cattle, &c, 

 &c, in order to give some idea of the actual state of Agriculture in 

 this country. We shall be ready to answer any inquiry on the sub- 

 ject of Agriculture to the best of our ability. In our next number 

 we shall furnish a few extracts from the report of the Agricultural 

 Inspector, Ireland, for the years '50-51. 



INDICATIONS OF THE CREATOR IN THE VEGE- 

 TABLE KINGDOM. 



In the great procession of the events of the moral universe,. and the 

 silent but not less beautiful sequence in the natural world, we are de- 

 termined by the constitutions of our minds to view all in the order of 

 cause and effect ; or at least of antecedent and consequent, for some 

 deny the reality of cause altogether, admitting only the notion of time 

 or succession in the relation of any two events. Whether there is 

 any power in the antecedent to produce the consequent, is a metaphy- 

 sical question which is foreign to my present object. The notion of 

 cause is all but universal. In the simple curiosity of the child, and the 

 more enlightened reflections of the man; in the rude Indian, who hears 

 the voice of the Great Spirit in the deep-toned thunder, and the phi- 

 losopher who asks what power originated and sustains this great thea- 

 tre of our existence 1 Whence comes this idea of causation 1 Is it a 

 primary idea — the product of the universal reason, rising spontaneous- 

 ly in the mind of every child 1 Or is it the result of intimations from 

 without, associated with the notions of time 1 On the first hypothe- 

 sis, the idea of a first cause is direct, intuitive, an indestructible fact, 

 or slate of human nature. On the second, it is the result of reflections 

 upon the phenomena outside of the soul. It is the last analysis, the 

 cause of which all other causes are effects. If we do not accept the 

 first theory, our argument for a first cause must consist entirely of the 

 inference of cause from effect. If we do admit this theory that the 

 idea of a first cause is innate or primary, the argument from effect to 

 cause is by no means unnecessary, for it supports the other in a very 

 satisfactory manner. 



In the arrangement of the external world, we observe the most per- 

 fect adaptation of means to ends. In this we see contrivance, and we 

 know nothing of contrivance but as the result of intelligence. Thus 

 comes the idea of a great intelligence, which may account for all 

 \ known phenomena. Now let us look at plants to see what indica- I 

 h tions they afford of the great first cause. The position of the vegeta- c 

 (,^ble kingdom — its relations to the other departments of nature, affords kj 



&£** : ^QM 



