as well as the highest amongst us. To the same commerce we owe the
potato and the pine-apple; the China rose, whose flowers cluster round
the cottage-porch, and the Camellia which blooms in the conservatory.
The addition even of a flower, or an ornamental shrub, to those which
we already possess, is not to be regarded as a matter below the
care of industry and science. The more we extend our acquaintance
with the productions of nature, the more are our minds elevated by
contemplating the variety, as well as the exceeding beauty, of the
works of the Creator. The highest understanding does not stoop when
occupied in observing the brilliant colour of a blossom, or the
graceful form of a leaf. Hogarth, the great moral painter, a man in
all respects of real and original genius, writes thus to his friend
Ellis, a distinguished traveller and naturalist:--'As for your pretty
little seed-cups, or vases, they are a sweet confirmation of the
pleasure Nature seems to take in superadding an elegance of form to
most of her works, wherever you find them. How poor and bungling are
all the imitations of Art! When I have the pleasure of seeing you
next, we will sit down, _nay, kneel down if you will_, and admire
these things.'

* * * * *

"It is one of the proudest attributes of man, and one which is most
important for him to know, that he can improve every production
of nature, if he will but once make it his own by possession and
attachment. A conviction of this truth has rendered the cultivation of
fruits, in the more polished countries of Europe, as successful as we
now behold it."

The work then divides into _Fruits of the Temperate Climates_, and