8 
with a thrilling pathos to the heart, imbibed. These 
are the eloquent pleadings of Nature, speaking in a 
silent, but fervent language, to every reflecting mind. 
Beings of a delicate and less gross composition, or- 
ganized with a seemingly more exquisite design, they 
address themselves, in their lowliness or magnificence, 
to our attention with an unanswerable force. It is a 
fact, no less curious than interesting, that a passion- 
ate fondness for the Garden has been observed in very 
many great men; and in the quiet seclusion which 
one may find there, have originated works, the aston- 
ishment of the world. ‘That touching lesson, too, of 
confidence in a Superior Power, which the exquisite 
beauty of a small moss on the arid plas of an Afri- 
can desert, gave to an enterprising traveler, at a time 
when every circumstance seemed conspired against 
him, by imparting a new energy to his mind, and for- 
titude to his heart, saved to the world an invaluable 
life ;* and many a high resolve or virtuous decision 
has undoubtedly owed its origin and performance to 
such silent monitors of good. 
Horticulture, in its most extended sense, embraces 
the first and most simple operation of civilized life, 
and, at the same time, constitutes one of the highest 
subjects for the ingenuity of the mind. He that 
committed the first seed to the earth, with the ex- 
pectation of again receiving it many fold, employed 
his reason and faculties in the primary rudiment of 
that science: but for many long ages were the mys- 
terious, yet immutable laws which gave development 
and increase to the embryo germ, hidden from the 

* Life of Mungo Park. Family Library, Vol. XL. 
