294 THE PEAR. 



trustfulness liave sweetened and sanctified. As 

 mankind multiplied, and a changed system of 

 society gave rise to nevr vrants and new occupa- 

 tions^ tliougli tliey too were liglitened and cheered 

 by the solaces of hope and honesty, yet to his 

 original employment man returns with an instinc- 

 tive love, indicating its origin. 



*• God, the ti'st garden made ; the first city, Cain." 



A warning against remission of industry was 

 furnished by the fact, that to whatever degree 

 plants may have been improved by cultivation, 

 immediately, on being neglected, they exhibit a 

 strong tendency to retui^n to their original wild 

 state : and a further incitement to industry was 

 aftbrded, by the discovery, that, although the 

 mystery of creative power was placed out of reach, 

 nay, out of sight, yet man was permitted, within 

 limits, to bend the laws of Nature to his will, 

 and by skill and care, ingenuity and patience, to 

 multiply new forms of existing plants to an in- 

 definite extent. 



By reference to these causes, principally, we are 

 to account for the production of the countless 

 varieties of flowers and fruits v^ith which our 

 gardens and orchards are filled, — varieties some- 

 time so unlike any known plants grovving in a 

 wild state, that it is hard to say from what stock 

 they were originally derived. Pre-eminent amons: 

 these, both for number and diversity of characters 

 stand the two trees of which we are now about to 

 treat. 



The Pear-tree, in its wild state, varies con- 

 siderably in difterent countries, both in its mode 

 of growth, and in the shape, size, and pubescence 



