GARDENING FOR CHILDREN. 
363 
Of some steep mossy bank, while other flowers 
Delight to flaunt before the admiring eye,. 
Out in the sunny fields. And yet of them. 
Sweet as thej- are, and beautiful to see, 
'Not one can claim to rear its fragrant head 
Above the modest purple violet." 
The old and unknown poet from whose 
quaint and crabbed language these lines have 
been extracted and smoothed, was, in our 
opinion, almost if not quite right. There 
is scarcely any flower to which we would 
accord a preference before the violet. But, 
" All that's bright must fade, 
The brightest still the fleetest ;" 
and the violet, accordingly, flourishes for but 
a brief period, and withers. 
Perhaps our readers may not have been 
uninterested in the perusal of the expression 
of the poet's sympathy with the beauties of 
the flower - garden, "We have sauntered 
through the "flowery paths of poesy," and 
marked a few of the most glittering speci- 
mens. But it must not be imagined we have 
culled all the rich blossoms there to be 
gathered. An infinite number remain. From 
Shakspeare we have selected but one or two 
choice gems ; Milton we have not exhausted ; 
and Byron has only afforded us one or two 
lines. We have not taxed the pages of 
Chaucer at all, and have left the Hellenic 
poets and the poets of ancient Italy for an- 
other occasion. Meanwhile, we trust our 
readers may not have felt uninterested in the 
selections which we have extracted. It is 
always pleasant to know what influence is 
exerted on lofty minds by the varied beauties 
of nature — and the poet's imagination has 
seldom failed to be such, — and kindled into 
enthusiasm by the glowing beauties of the 
Flower Garden. 
'%H!i^-^' 
GAEDENING FOR CHILDREN. 
A PKETTY title for a pretty book, written 
down to the understanding of a child, but 
divested of that frivolity which distinguishes 
•* Gardening for Children. Edited by the Rev. C. 
A. Johns, B.A. F.L.S., Author of " Botanical Eam- 
bles," &c. London : Charles Cox. 
this branch of literature ; for certain it is, that 
the authors of works for the younger branches 
seem to flincy it necessary to adapt their little 
books to very childish notions, as if it were 
desirable to perpetuate them, in.stead of lead- 
ing them to better thinos. This work, built 
o o 2 
