TREATISE ON THE VINE. 



the natural way they can possibly be ; and these, 

 let me observe, are not to be considered as articles 

 of luxury. 



But in regard to the variety of plants generally 

 cultivated in stoves, &c. I may properly add, 

 that, independently of profit, every denomination 

 of Forcing-houses is capable of affording to a 

 speculative mind a source of rational pleasure and 

 real satisfaction. 



An attention to the progress of vegetable life 

 administers to the mind something more solid than 

 mere amusement. The budding, leafing, and 

 flowering of plants, together with the progress of 

 the various fruits from their first infantile appear- 

 ance, to the final period of their perfection, all 

 unfold a scene of admiration and amazement, of 

 gratitude, and thankfulness. * 



* (i There is a particular pleasure to see things in their 

 origin, and by what degrees and successive changes they rise 

 into that order and state we see them in afterwards, when 

 completed. I am sure, if ever we would view the paths of 

 Divine Wisdom, in the works and in the conduct of nature, we 

 must not only consider how things are, but how they came to 

 be so. 



" It is pleasant to look upon a tree in the summer, covered 

 with its green leaves, decked with blossoms, or laden with fruit, 

 and casting a pleasing shade under its spreading boughs ; but 

 to consider how this tree, with all its furniture, sprang from a 

 little seed, how nature shaped it, and fed it in its infancy and 

 growth ; added new parts, and still advanced it by little and 

 little, till it came to this greatness and perfection. This, me- 

 thinks, is another sort of pleasure, more rational, less common, 



B 3 



