w hopes, when all earthly hopes
vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the
most gorgeous of lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption
and decay calls up beauty and divinity: makes an instrument of torture
and of shame the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and, far above all
combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of
palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of
everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom,
decay, annihilation, and despair!"

[70] In this delightful essay, he says, "the most exquisite delights of
sense are pursued, in the contrivance and plantation of gardens, which,
with fruits, flowers, shades, fountains, and the music of birds that
frequent such happy places, seem to furnish all the pleasures of the
several senses."

[71] Mr. Johnson, in his History of English Gardening, admirably
confirms this conflagration argument, by quoting the opinion or
testimony of the celebrated Goethe.

[72] To this interesting subject is devoted, a part of Mr. Loudon's
concise and luminous review "Of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of
Gardening in the British Isles;" being chapter iv. of his Encyclopaedia.

[73] Perhaps there are few pages that more awfully paint the sacredness
of this spot, than page 36 in the fifth edition of Dr. Alison's Essays
on Taste.

[74] I do not mean to apply to the hospitable table of this reverend
gentleman, the lines of Peter Pindar:--

One cut from _venison_, to the heart can speak,
Stronger than ten quotations from the _Greek_.

[75] I cannot prevent myself from quoting a very small portion of the
animated address of another clergyman, the Rev. J. G. Morris, as
chairman to the Wakefield Horticultural Society. I am certain each one
of my readers will blame me for not having inserted the whole of this
eloquent appeal. I copy it from the Gardener's Magazine for August,
1828:--"Conscious that I possessed no qualifications to fit me for the
task, and feeling that it ill became me to assume it, as I am as yet
nearly a stranger amongst you; aware, too, that I should be surrounded
by individuals so much more eligible, inasmuch as they are eminently
gifted with botanical science and practical knowledge, the result of
their horticultural pursuits and facilities, of which I am quite devoid;
I wished and begged to decline the proffered honour. It appears,
however, that my en