If we ascend to the wealthy and aristo- | person, or each had an abhorrence of the cratic circles of our countrymen, we find other. Physiologically, it is clear the two floriculture occupying a conspicuous place should be united, if a healthy development among the items of their expenditure, and, of body and mind is desired, mens sana in apparently, exercising considerable influ- corpore sano. Why genius, and wit, and ence over their mental habits. We say ap- eloquence should be necessarily associated parently, not because we doubt the fact, with an unhealthy condition of body, but because it is less susceptible of proof in cannot naturally be shown. That they their case, than in that of the classes be- often are so, is the result of a breach of fore-mentioned. It is not a sine qua non of nature's laws, which have imperatively respectability for a man of the lower or demanded, in all ages, the performance of middle ranks of society to have a well- corporeal labor as the price to be paid for ordered garden; but it is so with the the benefits of a vigorous and healthy dewealthy and the highborn. With them it velopment. The modern estimate of the is indispensable to have the luxuries of ve- capacities of genius is different in this regetable life, and, by consequence, the means spect from that of the ancients, whose of producing them; and there can be no wise and great men appear to have cultiquestion that some wealthy persons spend vated the bodily powers as well as those of many hundreds a year on their gardens the mind. Homer was a sturdy wanderer, without a genuine taste for flowers. Fash-uttering his sweet notes from a frame harion demands the sacrifice, and it is made as dened by exposure to the weather, and a matter of course. In labor alone, the inured to the hardships of travel. Cingarden of a country-gentleman will cost, cinnatus could handle the plough. Demoson a very moderate scale, £150 a year, thenes overcame natural imperfections by and often double or treble that sum. To great corporeal exertions. Cæsar could be these expenses must be added the cost of luxurious at times, but he was a great clasnew productions; artificial heat; rent of sical writer; and the reader of his Comland, and repairs, etc.; so that £1,000 mentaries is often at a loss which most to per annum is often spent on the horticul- admire, his clear head and masculine untural adjuncts of an establishment. All derstanding, or his capacity for physical this may, in some cases, be unconnected toil. We do not remember, in all the with an appreciation of natural beauties, compass of ancient literature, profane or but in most instances the taste and the ex-sacred, a reference to those topics which pense incurred go hand-in-hand. Many modern geniuses have consecrated to their noblemen and private gentlemen find great service; such as "the soul being too acute pleasure in rural pursuits, and engage in them scientifically. At the head of the former class must be placed the Duke of Devonshire, the great and zealous patron of the Horticultural Society of London. One advantage to society at large is obvious, resulting from these tastes in the aristocracy-they necessarily bring their possessors into contact with their humbler fellow-subjects, and teach them daily the important truth that Nature knows no aristocracy of intellect or talent.

We now pass to the consideration of one aspect of our theme, which will be more didactic than descriptive, and will contemplate more the enforcement of a duty than the statement of a fact; we mean, the desirableness of the study of botany and gardening to men of literary tastes and studious habits. From some inexplicable, or, certainly, insufficient cause, an unnatural divorce is often found to exist between the labor of the wits and of the hands, as though the two were incompatible in one

for the body;" "energies wasted by watching the midnight oil; "a frame unfitted. by genius for manly and robust exercises," etc. The sooner all this is expunged from our current language and literature the better. Fine mental endowments and correct tastes are surely more to be admired when set in a chasing of a muscular and vigorous body, than when associated with attenuated features, quick pulse, and an eye of ominous lustre. We beg to express a firm conviction, that a return to nature's laws is imperatively demanded of all men of learning and genius, and that the prospects of the human mind will be brightest when we recognise the claims of the inferior but inseparable casket in which it is lodged.

Perhaps there are no professional men, whose pursuits are of an intellectual character, who would be more benefited by an attention to botany and gardening than Christian ministers. This class, indeed, has acquired renown by the successful suit of horticulture, from the earlier efforts

pur

of the recluses of the convent to the more scientific labors of our own Henslow and Herbert. A large proportion of divines of all denominations are favorably situated for such pursuits, either by the ease of their worldly circumstances, or their living in rural districts; their parsonages having generally attached to them some portion of garden ground. That every public and private duty may be conscientiously attended to simultaneously with such operations, is attested by numerous examples, and cannot be reasonably doubted. But it is well known that very many ministers are excluded from any extensive acquaintance with such matters, partly by their situation in large towns and cities, and partly by the numerous engagements which the modern character of the religious world lays upon them. Yet these are the very persons who most need the enlivening influences of floral pursuits, and who would receive from them the largest amount of benefit. A country pastor may never handle the spade, nor tie up a flower; but, whether conscious of it or not, he is moulded and fashioned by the scenes of nature around him, and daily assimilates to himself the healthy nutriment so abundantly provided. But in London, or similar localities, a pastor occupies a different position; is surrounded by contrasted influences; and is, therefore, bound to seek voluntarily that which his sphere of life does not place at his feet-bound, we mean, if he has a due regard to his physical well-being, and to the buoyancy and right adjustment of his mind.

closed the fact, that a one-sided application of the faculties has never had the blessing of heaven. It is in the midst of the meeting and blending rays of light from all the quarters whence their Creator darts them, that truth loves to dwell; and in that irradiated sphere she must be sought.

The Christian minister must in every case be the pioneer, and not the follower, of the crowd. The moment he finds himself urged onwards by a pressure from without, he must be prepared either to confess his past sluggishness, or, feeling that his own opinions and practice are correct, to make a dignified and active resistance. Hence, if an exhibition of weakness and dangerous concessions are to be avoided, he must habitually frequent an eminence from which the real state of things may be viewed, and the wisest courses discerned. In large cities he has to do with many whose idolatry is wealth, and whose dangerous disease is inordinate worldly excitement. Unhappy is the condition of both the teacher and the taught, if the former dwells in an atmosphere which prevents him from seeing the common danger, and sounding an alarm! If he is also unduly excited; if public meetings, and numerous engagements on committees; if much company; or even if an excess of pastoral duties, cause him to live in a crowd, and deny him time for calm reflection, he will not be likely to see the excitement of his flock. An association with the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field-quiet musings among the grand, yet silent operations of nature, will place him in a proper position. He will learn, in such circumstances, that man's life-his happiness-consisteth not in the abundance which he possesses; and he will come as a freeman of nature to tell his people, in words of authority enforced by the genuine dictates of his own heart, that a state of mind, and not outward circumstance, constitutes happiness. Of course, these great lessons will be learned most advantageously among natural things; but if this is denied, books should supply the place. Every student of divinity should be a naturalist either in theory or practice, and, if possible, in both.

How eminently suggestive are all the works of the great Creator! and how easily does the mind draw to itself the stores of wisdom and knowledge furnished by the books of Nature and Providence! If it is supposed that a man of ordinary abilities loses time by a moderate attention to horticulture, or any other physical science, a fatal mistake is committed, which should be rectified at once. The social principle operates in the region of intellect as well as everywhere else, and it is not good for a mental faculty to pursue its investigations alone. Error appears to love the haunts of a man of one book-homo unius libri— But it is time to say something specific although that book may be the revealed respecting the works placed at the head of Word of God. To some minds, the claim this article, although all we have advanced to lofty piety appears to be sustained if its is in perfect accordance with their spirit supposed possessor despises all literature and intention. "The Gardener's Chronicle but that which is sacred; and eschews all and Agricultural Gazette" is, as its title imknowledge but that which is revealed. But ports, a weekly register of matters concernpast experience and observation have dis-ing the gardener and the farmer; it abounds

in notices of natural history, and may be lied to it; and therefore, the physician acquainted recommended as an interesting and unex-with the natural system of botany, may direct his ceptionable family journal. The "School inquiries, when on foreign stations, not empiricalBotany" will attract by the beauty of its il-ly, but on fixed principles, into the qualities of the lustrations, and if used in our seminaries, cannot fail of being highly beneficial to the young, and of drawing them on to a more scientific admiration of the works of nature in after life. The principal work, however, is the "Vegetable Kingdom," the mature product of the long studies of Dr. Lindley; a distinguished monument of his patient industry, general scholarship, and scientific attainments. We will allow the professor to introduce his own work in the following extracts from his preface.

medicinal plants which have been provided in every region for the alleviation of the maladies peculiar to it. He is thus enabled to read the hidden characters with which nature labels all the hosts of species that spring from her teeming bosom. Every one of these bears inscribed upon it the uses to which it may be applied, the dangers which it has been endowed. The language in to be apprehended from it, or the virtues with which they are written is not indeed human; it is in the living hieroglyphics of the Almighty which the skill of man is permitted to inspect. The key to their meaning lies enveloped in the folds of the natural system, and is to be found in no other place."

This volume is beautifully printed, and the contents will afford much interest to the casual reader. It will form a useful appendage to any library.

"Its object is to give a concise view of the state of systematical botany at the present day, to show the relation or supposed relation of one group of plants to another, to explain their geographical distribution, and to point out the various uses to which the species are applied in different countries. The names of all known genera, with their synonyms, are given under each natural order, the numbers of the genera and species are in every case computed from what seems to be the best authority, and complete indices of the multitudes of names embodied in the work are added, so as to enable a botanist to know immediately under what natural metropolitan concentration of human life like order a given genus is stationed, or what are the ours, in which occurs a whole sixth part of all the uses to which any species has been applied. Fi-waste of health and life in the three united kingnally, the work is copiously illustrated by wood and glyphographic cuts, and for the convenience of students an artificial analysis of the system is placed at the end.

We need scarcely intimate to our readers that Dr. Lindley's work advocates a natural system of botany, and not the artificial one of Linnæus. On the merits of the natural system he thus speaks :-

THE OUTCRY FOR SANATORY REFORM.--In a vast

doms, and in which, from amongst 2,000,000 people, nearly 50,000 die every year,-900 every week,one every tenth minute,-the mere destruction of 10,000 of these every year,-200 every week,—one every hour, by means of municipal poison alone, insidiously administered along with the air which the doomed ones breathe, may, by comparison, seem the value of a single life at the amount of the poputo be a matter of minor import; yet, if we estimate lar outcry created by the scarcely more deliberate, though more designed, destruction of that one life by domestic poison, what a mighty and eternal outcry ought to rend the welkin and the walls of every city, town, and village in the empire, till an end be for ever put to this now too well recognised and wholesale system of manslaughter!

"The natural system of botany being founded on these principles, that all points of resemblance between the various parts, properties, and qualities of plants shall be taken into consideration; that THE HUSKISSON STATUE.-The visit of Sir Rothence an arrangement shall be deduced in which bert Peel to Liverpool was appropriately chosen for plants must be placed next each other which have the elevation to its pedestal, in front of the Customthe greatest degree of similarity in those respects; house, of a bronze statue of Huskisson, the great exand that consequently the quality of an imperfectly fation. The statue, which is of light bronze, was pounder of the true principles of commercial legisknown plant may be judged of by that of another cast in Holland, from a statue executed in Rome, by which is well known, it must be obvious that such Gibson, and is a present from Mrs. Huskisson to a method possesses great superiority over artificial the town on which the deeply lamented deceased resystems, like that of Linnæus, in which there is flected so much lustre as its representative. It is no combination of ideas, but which are mere col- eight feet four inches in height, and, although not lections of isolated facts, having no distinct relation of solid metal, weighs 18 cwt. The position is digto each other. The advantages of the natural sys-nified and imposing, and the drapery is arranged tem, in applying botany to useful purposes, are and bears, in plain, bronze letters, the simple but with grace and freedom. The pedestal is of granite, immense, especially to medical men, who depend sufficient inscription, "William Huskisson." He so much upon the vegetable kingdom for their re- holds a document rolled up, in the right hand, which medial agents. A knowledge of the properties of rests upon the thigh. The head considerably reone plant enables the practitioner to judge scienti-clines, and the figure appears looking down upon fically of the qualities of other plants naturally al- the spectators.-Liverpool Albion.

From Sharpe's Magazine.

A SKETCH OF DOMESTIC LIFE.

FROM THE GERMAN OF ZSCHOKKE.

CHAP. I. THE FATHER'S RETURN.

The Elder might well dread any interruption to his felicity. His family, numerous as it was, formed one of those happy households so seldom seen. Riches were not the cause of their happiness; for, possessing but a moderate fortune, they lived as economically as a mechanic or husbandman's family, and yet had more at their command than many a nobleman. simplicity, piety, and high principle which Danielis had inculcated in each member of his family, his own fatherly kindness, and the tender love of his wife, the best of mothers, combined to render all the household truly happy.

The

ONE golden evening in June, 1832, a travelling carriage was rolling along the highroad which led to the pleasant valley of Koran. Within the coach sat, with folded arms, a strong and powerfully built man of sixty, but fresh-looking as if scarcely fifty years had passed over him. He was simply clad in black, with a hunting cap drawn over his forehead. Danielis was the traveller's name he was an elder of the church, and was returning from a tour which he usually took every summer, either for health or recreation. The country lay before him bathed in the purple glow of sun- "Most men," said Danielis once, in a set; meadows, woods, and villages, mingled letter to a friend, a portion of which we together in undulating luxuriance; but Da-quote to display the character of a man nielis hardly noticed it. His heart was with the scenes he had just quitted; his thoughts hovered over the bare table-lands of the Suabian Alps, or the ruins of the Abbey Kirtchan; and memory conjured up the pleasant conversations he had held in the shady walks of Rippolstan with dear and intimate friends.

whom his neighbors considered as rather eccentric,--" most men lead an unreal life, because they live only for appearances. In the world there is an equal portion of joy and sorrow; and I would as little part with the one as with the other. Both contribute to beautify existence; both incite us to improvement. Our happiness or misery deQuickly the images of the past melted pends not on chance; for the unseen hand into thoughts of the present; and his mind of God, which men call fate, brings neither turned to those dearest to him, their inte- bliss nor woe but to work out a good end rests and welfare. He beheld at a short | towards us. Riches, power, and honor, are distance, opposite the town of Koran, his often blessings only in appearance; yet modest but happy dwelling. It was built how great sacrifices will men make to obin the Italian style on the slope of a wood-tain them! He who, having been prospered hill. As the carriage drove on, he saw ous, is satisfied with an easy competence, the gigantic willow, planted beside a little and devotes the rest to do good to others; stream which bounded his garden; its wide and he who, poor himself, is yet a helping branches stretched over to the opposite angel to those poorer still; these two demeadow, and the pendent stems waved in pend not on the smile or frown of Fortune. the evening breeze. Then the poplars by the Happiness and peace are theirs. The world fountain, and the dove-cot,-his children's obtains no evil influence over them, they delight, rose before the father's eyes. are righteous instruments in the hand of God."

He stood up in the carriage, with emotions more of anxiety than pleasure. His But now let us return to him who thus eyes wandered right and left, as if asking wrote. The coach stopped at the entranceevery passer by, "Is all well in that gate which led by a side path to the home house Though far from being supersti- of Danielis. Joyous sounds from welltious, Danielis sometimes allowed his ima- known voices arose throughout the garden. gination to play him tricks, for which his A merry troop rushed to meet the father; reason reproached him. He tried to divine first the elder children, and after them the from the countenances of the casual pas- merry little ones. Scarcely had he emsengers who recognised him the welfare of braced them all, when his loving wife Anna those beloved ones whom he had left behnd. I threw herself into his arms, and he fondly

kissed her clear open brow, on which fortyfive years had not imprinted a single wrinkle. Near her stood Joseph, the eldest son, with his young wife, whom he had lately married. Then came Else, the favorite of the family, a village girl who had been taken into the household. She carried in her arms her young charge, the little Christian, of four years old, who was struggling to reach his father. The happy parent entered his home in the midst of a body-guard more faithful, loving, and devoted than ever surrounded a king.

CHAP. II.-IMPORTANT COMMUNICATIONS.

In a few days, the first excitement of joy being over, everything in the house of the Elder returned to its usual routine, which was so simple, and free alike from display and annoyance, that no habitation within many miles could vie with it. This quiet uniformity was one source of happiness; the history of a day was the history of a year. Before the dwellers in the neighborhood had shaken off their slumbers, every one in the house of Danielis was up and busy; the father among his books and papers in an upper chamber, or instructing his elder children; the mother in the lower part of the house, superintending her domestics, or teaching the younger branches of the family.

the husband, smiling. "But in what particular thing are you right now?"

"In what I have feared so long, and what you would not believe. Our Jacob and Else have fallen in love with each other, and, I doubt not, are secretly betrothed, or will be soon."

"Secretly betrothed!" repeated Danielis, much astonished; and, though yet doubting the fact, unable to conceal the uneasiness it caused him.

แ

To explain this affair, our readers should be acquainted that our Jacob" was one of the eldest sons of this worthy couple; he was a young man of twenty, and a curate in the town of Zollingen.

"How and from whom have you learnt this?" asked Danielis, after a momentary silence.

"By mere chance. I went into Else's apartment, and found on the ground an open letter in Jacob's handwriting. Fancying it was one of his, which I had dropped by accident, I took it up and read the contents. It was full of exhortations to piety and obedience to us; and then came a confession of the most tender love for Else herself."

As his wife spoke, the countenance of the Elder softened; because perhaps he had gained much self-command in the course of a life of trial, or perhaps from the confidence he had in his son's pure and manly character. "And Else ?" asked he.

After the morning, which was spent in a cloister-like silence, all assembled round "She came into the room, and saw the the table to a very simple meal. From that letter in my hand with apparent indifference. moment merry laughter, noise, and jesting, When I advised her in future to be more were heard throughout the house, and re- careful of her papers, and not to leave them sounded in the garden, the meadow, and about, she colored deeply, and looked anxeven to the neighboring heights, while the ious. But when I inquired into the partiparents in summer-time sat in the garden culars, she confessed all with innocent conversing with friends and relatives. At frankness, though with much timidity; and evening time the children raised their voices it was easy to perceive that she saw nothing in united song, which rang through the still- wrong in the affair. Jacob had always ness of the country all around, and was re- been so kind to her she owed him so much peated by the woodland echoes. This uni--it was no wonder that every one loved form life was seldom broken. Jacob, for he deserved it.' I really doubt whether the girl is even aware of the nature of his affection for her."

One morning as Danielis was seated at the writing-table of the study, Mother Anna entered the room with serious looks. A smile passed over the Elder's face. Before she uttered a word, the expression" And Mother Anna-what did she say to of her face announced to her husband that she had something important to disclose. "What is the matter, my dear wife?" asked he, laying down his pen.

all this ?"r

"I did not reproach her, I could not ;and besides it would only have blown an insignificant spark into a flame. I advised her not to say a word about this circumstance, as it might do her harm. Else knows nothing of the world; she is as inexperienced "When were you ever wrong?" replied as it is possible for a girl of sixteen to be;

I

"You see it now," she said, in a tone that foreboded ill; you see it quite right."

now,

was