210 
MORAL INFLUENCE OF HORTICULTURE. 
BY REV. JOHN J. MITER, MILWAUKEE. 
“ But rather to tell how, if art could fell, 
How from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks, 
Rolling in orient pearl and sands of gold, 
With mazy error under pendant shades 
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed 
Flowers, worthy of 1’aradise, which not nice Art 
In beds and curious knots, but Na ure boon 
Poured forth profuse on hill and dale and plain.”— Miltox. 
Paradise, in all the beauty and magnificence of its natural scenery, was 
cbosen by Divine Wisdom as the delightful home of the first human pair. 
Its untainted atmosphere, loaded with the breath of fragrance, its peren¬ 
nial bloom, sparkling in “orient pearl,” its varied luxuriance, and the 
rural employments to which it invited its blissful proprietors, were wisely 
arranged for the purpose of unfolding and refining all that is God-like in 
the human soul. By breathing its pure air, by training its graceful vines, 
pruning its prolific shrubs, and wandering at early morn and even¬ 
ing twilight through its decorated walks, the body was invigorated and 
developed in all its pristine beauty and perfection. The wisdom display¬ 
ed in the variety of its productions, in the magnificent arrangements of 
its scenery, and in the wonderful mechanism of each form of animated 
existence, contained within its ample inclosures, were adapted to elicit 
thought, and to refine those intellectual powers which were designed to 
reflect the Divine intelligence. In like manner, its innumerable specimens 
of beauty and sublimity, when sparkling in the morning dew, or bathed 
in the splendors of mid-day, or tinged with the golden hues of the setting 
sun, were pre-eminently fitted to cultivate a finished taste. In fine, the 
uncorrupted heart of man would need no more powerful incentives to 
prayer and praise. It could not fail to adore and love when its Great 
Original was revealing himself in the beauties, the luxuriance, and the 
harmonious voices of Eden. Such was the natural scenery which sur¬ 
rounded man when admiring angels first looked down upon him in his 
pristine purity and happiness. 
