434 
STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
not only an ornamental and nsefal science, but that it should 
form part of the education of an agricultural people, such as 
ours is. When, therefore, I say, that this is a matter of con¬ 
gratulation, I am sure you will agree with me, since to have 
enlisted the sympathies, the appreciation and the help of gen¬ 
tlemen deservedly occupying such positions, forms an era in 
the history of our society. 
And now, gentlemen, in conclusion, though I might consider 
your favorite science in many more of its aspects and relations, 
I can scarcely believe it necessary. Were, however, any fur¬ 
ther argument needed to show the advantages of horticulture, 
it is to be found in its moral as well as its intellectual influence 
upon the character of individuals as well as of nations. Its 
action is indeed, in this respect, of a reciprocating nature. It 
not only is the means of civilizing a peoplebut is again one of 
the products of the more refined civilization. It is not only a 
moralizer but the work of a moralizer in return. It is as the 
heavens, a picture-maker and a picture for the multitude ; pov¬ 
erty’s solace and the rich man’s luxury. A teacher and a les¬ 
son in art, in the good, and in the beautiful. It is one of the 
few and certain means by wihch men can positively obtain 
that for which all men alike are seeking, how to spend 
a truly happy hour. It is a quiet communing with nature by 
which men are made better in the perfect forgetfulness of all 
other things. And this is to me one of the many, if not the 
most remarkable, features of horticulture. In my garden whilsl' 
tending a simple flower or a delicate vine, cares, thoughts, feel¬ 
ings, memory are vanished. There is a kind of sensuous de¬ 
light but no preceptible consciousness of anything, but the little 
specimen of God’s love before me. Such a state of mind has 
often been to me a source of reflection, of enquiry, and the 
result is that it is in itself but a touch of that felicitous state 
of existence,—in this world never fully realized but once,— 
when our parents, the gardeners of Paradise, were young on 
the face of the earth, and all guile and guilt unknown. 
