To study culture, and with artful toil 
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil; 
To give dissimilar, yet fruitful lands, 
The grain or herb, or plant that each demands; 
To cherish virtue iu an humble state, 
And share the joys youi bounty may create ; 
To mark the matchless workings of the power 
That shuts within its seed the future flower; 
Bids these in form of elegance excel, 
In colour these, and those delight the smell; 
Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies, 
To dance on earth, and charm all haman eyes ; 
To teach the canvass innocent deceit. 
Or lay the landscape on the snowy sheet. — 
These, these are arts pursued without a crime, 
That leave no stain upon the wing of time." 
Cowpeh, 
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HORTICULTURAL PURSUITS; 
THEIR IMPORTANCE AND ADVANTAGES. 
Cowper must have been a gardener ; none 
but a Horticulturist at heart could have con- 
ceived the beautiful ideas which are breathed 
in every sentence of the above quotation. No 
one who had not experienced the calm delight 
arising from the contemplation of his plot of 
ground, could have so happily enforced the 
advantages of cultivating the soil, nor have 
given so comprehensive a lesson in so few and 
such pleasing words. They form a text from 
which a divine might preach, a lengthy sermon, 
or on which a lecturer might dilate for hours. 
The advantages of study, the practical prepa- 
ration of the ground for its work, the proper 
choice of subjects for the situations and soil, 
the duty of cherishing industry among the 
working classes, and affording them the means 
of enjoying their recreative labour, are all 
plainly and prettily laid before us in the most 
inviting form. Who can read these few lines 
without comprehending in the picture the 
whole system of allotment and cottage garden- 
ing ? And what is more charming to the prince 
and the peasant than a well kept parterre ; 
what more lovely to the eye and fragrant to 
the sense than the flowers with which it is 
bespangled ? In the very depth of winter a 
few sunny days bring out some straggling 
beauty to aid the more staple occupant of the 
season. The laurustinus, which begins to 
open its snowy bunches even before Christ- 
mas, seems to invite all other beauties to follow 
his example. The Christmas rose at his feet 
rivals him in whiteness, and seems to say he 
4*J 
shall not bloom alone ; while the coral and 
golden berries of the holly shine above and 
brighten the scene. January scarcely passes, 
unless in very dreary seasons, without opening 
some truant wall-flower or primrose before its 
time. February adds snow-drops, daffodils, 
polyanthuses, primrose-, and crocuses, all of 
which become plentiful in March ; and April 
brings forth the auricula, the hyacinth, early 
tulip, narcissus, jonquil, and crown-impe- 
rial, and a bevy of beauties, which vie 
with each other in brilliance and in fragrance. 
And now comes May, with her thousand 
blossoms of all hues and scents. The gaudy 
tuli-p now ascends her throne as Queen of 
May flowers. Anemones and ranunculuses 
carpet their respective beds with all the 
colours of the rainbow. June brings forth 
the rose, which on the dwarf bush, or the 
stately standard, or covering the front of the 
cottage, is alike beautiful, and with its humble 
companion, the pink, sheds its odour in all 
directions ; and thus wc might proceed through 
the whole year, noticing the carnation and 
picotee, and the thousand summer flowers, 
which in rapid succession fill up their respec- 
tive months, until the dahlia, the Michaelmas- 
daisies, and other autumnal flowers are cut 
oflf by the frosts, with which, however, the 
gay chrysanthemum has a stand-up light, and 
to the last braves the worst weather in the 
borders, as if determined to see all other beau- 
ties out. But even now the winter aconite, 
the autumnal crocus, and the Sternbergia lutea 
