SOILS ii 



the gravel had been converted into loam. And is 

 there not much resemblance between ourselves and 

 our soils — the soil without, and that soil within, which 

 the Psalmist calls 'the ground of the heart'? No 

 two characters, and no two gardens, exactly alike, 

 but all with the same natural propensity to send up 

 wild oats and weeds ; all requiring continuous culture, 

 training, and watchful care ; all dependent, when man 

 has done his best, upon the sunshine and rains of 

 heaven. * Soils,' writes Loudon, ' not kept friable by 

 cultivation, soon become hardened ; ' and so do hearts. 

 But from ourselves, as from our soils, we may eject 

 the evil, introducing the good in its place ; we may 

 grow Roses instead of weeds, if we will. * Upon the 

 same man,' writes Richter, who was a florist as well 

 as a philosopher, and seldom appeared in the streets 

 of Bayreuth without a flower in his coat, * as upon a 

 vine-planted mount, there grow more kinds of wine 

 than one : on the south side something little worse 

 than nectar, on the north side something little better 

 than vinegar.' But we may level the hill by humbling 

 our pride, and so lay open the whole vineyard before 

 the summer sun. 



I pass now to the consideration of a subject which 

 is one of the most important of all to those who desire 

 to grow Roses in perfection. 



