glesides a man of your unblemished reputation; re-doux from one of your thousand admirers?" asked he. ally, I am shocked-amazed-disgusted." "Madam," "It is from your uncle," replied Mrs. Gossamer. "From cried Mr. Singlesides, glaring at Betsey's leg, "I so my uncle! what can he possibly have to correspond lemmy affirm that I do not know to whom that limb with you about?" "It is in reference to a laughable belongs." "Impossible, sir; I would swear to it among adventure-I will tell it you ;" and she began a relation a regiment of legs." "Your knowledge far surpasses of the late rencontre. mine, madam," cried the bachelor, elevating his voice to From her account it appeared, that Mrs. Gossamer a higher pitch, and stretching out his clenched fist-"I had seen Miss Bod in Mr. Singlesides' bed-room, and again solemnly protest that I know not to whom that believing something ludicrous might result from it, parlimb belongs." "Then I'll venture to assert you areticularly as she had seen the bachelor on his way home, among the very few men of the city who are unacquain-she went to his house on pretence of renting it, and ted with the leg." "That's a cruel, shameful slander," purposely insisted on being admitted to his sleeping screamed Miss Bid, struggling from her hiding place. apartment. "Miss Betsey Bad, by all that's dreadful!" exclaimed It furthermore appeared from the conversation that Mrs. Gossamer with a theatrical start. "Yes-the ensued, that a deep and romantic attachment existed bewoman you would injure in the tenderest point," said tween the narrator and the person that listened, who the weeping spinster. "O, Mr. Singlesides," she con- was nephew to Mr. Sing'esides, and heir of his fortune, tinued-"I am placed in an extremely delicate situa-provided he remained single during life. Mrs. Gossation-I can scarcely explain myself, my situation is of mer's attentions to the uncle, therefore, were intended such a delicate nature-I feel faint-overcome-harts-to propitiate his good opinion and induce him to reverse horn, if you please-drops of any description." "There is nothing of the kind about this house," said Mr. Singlesides—" it is not used to be troubled with hysterical females; and I must say, ma'am, that your appearance here gives rise to most unpleasant suspicions against "Then you have done for yourself with my uncle," me." Miss Bud attempted to give an account of her- said Frederic, laughing. "Not at all-I have a capital self, frequently interrupting her scarcely coherent nar-plan; it has this moment struck me. Return here in an rative, with floods of tears. Mrs. Gossamer regarded the scene with an incredulous smile, when at length she said, “Well, I never saw more spirited acting than is displayed on both sides. Really, Mr. Singlesides, and Miss Bud, you would do well to enrol your names among the first strolling company you meet. But I will intrude no longer, and in future I shall take care how I enter a bachelor's house." With these words, she indignantly withdrew.

the order of his will; and Mr. Singlesides being ignorant of the preference entertained by Mrs. Gossamer for his nephew Frederic, naturally appropriated the attentions to himself.

hour and you shall hear of a way in which you may gain your uncle's consent to our marriage." Instead of either a written or verbal message from the widow, as he had imagined, Mr. Singlesides was startled by the unceremonious entrance of that person herself. "There is only one condition, sir," she abruptly began, "on which I will consent to keep secret what I have seen." "Name it, madam," said Mr. Singlesides, apprehensive of some new evil. "That you will make me your "I am forever undone,” whimpered Betsey Bud; "she wife, sir." "Impossible, madam; I—I—.” “No apolwill proclaim it from one end of the town to the other." ogies, sir-we understand each other I presume-good "And I shall be slandered and laughed at," thought Mr. day." "Stay, Mrs. Gossamer-I cannot-" "O well, Singlesides, who was peculiarly tenacious of his fair sir-no compulsion; you may do as you please, you fame. "I never can survive disgrace," squeaked Miss know." "Really, Mrs. Gossamer, if I could consistBud-"I shall certainly imitate the chaste Lucretia." ently--." "I repeat, you can do as you please, Mr. "Do not say so, Miss Bud." "Indeed I shall put an Singlesides; but believe me, I shall not keep silent; inend to myself." "Oh! Miss Bud." "Upon my honor, deed I shall go to the expense of having caricature cuts I will commit some dreadful act." "You talk rashly, engraved of the whole scene-not omitting the memomadam," cried the bachelor, who perceived that Betseyrable leg discovery." The vision of the bow window would suffer as much from the blasting breath of calumny as himself, and in a fit of unnatural pity he made her an offer of his hand!!

Mr. Singlesides had never before been so much excited; his discretion and judgment were completely under the dominion of the contending feelings at work in his breast, or he never could have terminated the scene by such a magnanimous act of self immolation.

of a book-store, stuck full of these execrable prints, was too much for our bachelor, and, just as the widow was making her exit, he recalled her, and in faultering accents assented to the proposed terms of accommodation. "Am I in my senses ?" asked the unfortunate bachelor, as soon as the light form of the widow had escaped through the door. "Do I really exist? Yes," he added, reasoning with Descartes, "I think, thereMiss Bud returned home with very different emotions fore, I exist." Burying his face in his hands, he confrom those with which she had left it. She seemed to tinued in this attitude many minutes, until aroused by tread on air, and could scarcely behave herself with the entrance of a person whom he recognised as his due decorum on the occasion. Before his excitement nephew. Frederic gazed at his uncle with an inquiring had subsided, Mr. Singlesides wrote a note to Mrs. eye, remarked his haggard appearance and expressed Gossamer, explanatory of the recent occurrence, and the greatest apprehension about his health. "Something closing with an earnest request that it might "never be extraordinary must afflict you," said he; “and I hope made the subject of discussion." The lovely widow you will not refuse me the privilege of sympathising was warbling her sweetest strains to a pale, intellec- with you." Mr. Singlesides' emotions were too violent tual looking young man, who was hanging over her en-to be pent up in his own breast. He told his distresstranced, when this was handed in. "Is that a billet-ling entanglements, and even asked for advice. "I will

not only advise," said Frederic, (being previously in-
structed by Mrs. Gossamer,) "but also make a proposi-Do you remember, too, how many a time
tion. I will myself marry the widow, provided you
annul the clause in your will which disinherits me in
case of my marrying. As for the maid, you must leave
her without explanation or apology. Your secret will
be safe, when Mrs. Gossamer is your niece."

Through the lone church-yard we together trod,——
And the sweet music of the Sunday chime
That called the village up to worship God?
How near the altar-spot we had our seat,
E'en in the holiest of that holy shrine;

Beneath a feeling which we knew divine,-
Do you remember it?

IV.

Mr. Singlesides had too long appreciated the bless-And how we bow'd with awe and reverence meet ings of liberty, not to seize the first occasion to release himself from shackles, with which the delirious excitement of a moment had encumbered him. Very soon after the interview between the uncle and nephew, the widow and the latter were united under the roof of Mr. Singlesides, who bestowed a substantial benediction on them by settling a liberal annuity upon the bride.'

Meanwhile Miss Bud remained immersed in matrimonial preparations-alas! too premature. She did not fail, however, to remind her intended husband of her existence, by repeated messages and presents, which were almost entirely disregarded.

There was an unusual air of bustle and confusion about the quiet and orderly domicil of the bachelor; who himself was busily employed in superintending the packing of several trunks, with a countenance on which was strongly impressed mingled feelings of satisfaction and regret. A gentle tap at the door, drew his attention-it was a maid with a plate of batter-cakes and Miss Betsey's compliments. "D-n Miss Betsey," cried Mr. Singlesides-slamming the door in her face. The following hour he was off to Texas.

Miss Betsey Bud-but we will draw a veil over her sorrows. No, we will leave it for an instant unclosed, and just glance at her as she paces frantically from room to room, calling out in allusion to Texas, "Well, well indeed, may it be called 'rogue's refuge.'" Macon, Bibb County, Georgia.

M. G. M.

Do you remember, too, our fireside meetings-
The words of friendship and the cheerful greetings;
The many pleasant faces gathered there,
And our "dear grandpa's" high-back'd, cushion'd
chair,

In which he sat, his tender stories telling

While in their eyes, the quiet tear-drops welling,
To friends that hung upon each moving word,
Told of the deep effect of what they heard,-
Do you remember them?

Do you remember, cousin, the warm tears
You shed, while clasp'd so closely to my heart,
And how I tried to soothe your rising fears;
On that sad morning when we had to part?
And how I told you all that I had dream'd,
In young ambition's most propitious hour,
Of untrod heights of fame, whose summits seem'd
Above the common hopes of men to tower,-
Do you remember it?

VI.

Do you remember me, while far away

From all those friends in whom I took delight,
And cherish my remembrance day by day,
And meet me in the visions of the night?
And while I tread temptation's dangerous path,
And see my fond hopes blasted, one by one,
Meeting with scorn and frowns, and slights and wrath,
Will you, sweet cousin, love me fondly on,
And still remember me?
C. M. F. D.

New York, Sept. 17, 1939.

DO YOU REMEMBER?

TO ANNA.

I.

Do you remember how our childhood's hours
Were spent in wandering through the forest shade,
Weaving our garlands of the sweet wild-flowers

That on the air a pleasant fragrance shed?
And how we sat beside the flowing brooks?
Watching the sun-fish glitt'ring in the stream,
While uncheck'd joy spake in our very looks,
And all was peaceful as an infant's dream,-
Do you remember it?

II.

Do you remember our old favorite tree,
Spreading its boughs of foliage, thick and dark,
And how you clapp'd your little hands to see

The letters of your name carved in its bark?
And all the cares and sport we had at school ;—
How long I tarried when you were detain'd;
And when the mistress placed me on the stool,
While others laugh'd and mock'd, how you were
pain'd,-
Do you remember it?

VOL. V.-96

THE GOOD AND THE BAD.

The good generally attribute the actions of persons to better motives than the bad; and this is very natural. For the latter having been often impelled by such motives, can more easily imagine others to act from their influence, than the former can; who must necessarily have but a faint idea of such feelings, never having themselves experienced them. In fact, they both generalize from themselves to others.

If the world be as bad as some assert, I should suppose that a knowledge of human nature would conduce very much to our own fall. For, by habit we may accustom ourselves to any thing; and the constant sight of vice deadens our horror for it; seeing also so many around us doing wrong, we will be apt to consider it not very heinous for us also to act thus.

G.

ADDRESS,

Delivered before the Horticultural Society of Maryland, at its
Annual Exhibition, June 6, 1839; by Zac. Collins Lee, Esq.*
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE

MARYLAND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY:
At your request I appear this evening to discharge a
pleasing duty, and offer with you on this fragrant and
pure shrine of Nature, the homage and gratitude which
these her gifts of fruit and flower demand.

From the engrossing and dull pursuits of artificial life-from the marts of commerce and the feverish paths of politics and ambition, we here solicit all ages and classes to unite in a festival and taste a cup unmingled and unembittered by selfishness or pride.

Had I consulted my own just estimate of the occasion, and my unfitness to make it interesting or useful, the duty I now perform should have been declined; but there was something so refreshing and beautiful in the associations of your society, that I yielded rather to instinct and feeling than to judgment, and determined to throw myself upon the same kind opinion and indulgence which had called me to its discharge.

The anniversaries of national disenthralment and renown are stirring and patriotic in themselves-but the very achievements they celebrate, have been won by the blood of patriots and the sufferings of a whole people-the laurel and the willow entwine the chaplet on the hero's brow; and many a tear for the gallant dead, saddens the 'flowing bowl' in which their deeds are freshly remembered.' In other lands less favored and free than our own, the waving of banners, the falchion's gleam, and the roar of cannon, proclaim too often the sanguinary triumph of power over civil liberty-and the proud pageant is darkened by the retrospect of battles, the sack of cities, the burning of villages, and the flight and massacre of thousands, before the conqueror's sword. Even in the earlier days of chivalry and romance, with the tilt and the tournament, where was sung and commemorated

'Knighthood's dauntless deed,
And beauty's matchless eye'-

there, alas, so servile and degrading a barrier separated the lord from the serf, that it robbed these heroic jubilees of that freshness and attraction which freedom alone

bestows.

But this, your anniversary, simple and unostenta tious, though it be, is, compared with those, the refreshing shower, and the balmy air, after the thunder-cloud has burst, and the summer heat has passed away. It is the union of all that is useful with all that is beautiful—the rainbow of the fields, displaying every color and fraught with every sweet.

Surely then, if the smiles of Heaven ever descend, it must be upon a scene like this—for you have come

*In accordance with our previously expressed determination,

not to be restricted altogether to original matter when a good selection is at hand, we take great pleasure in spreading before our readers a rich and delicious repast in the address of Zaccheus Collins Lee, Esq, delivered before the Horticultural Socie. ty of Maryland, at its annual exhibition in June last. We trust

that none of our readers, and especially our fair readers, will think of laying down the Messenger until they have admired

with us this beautiful literary gem.-[Editer S. L ́t. Mes.

up here, the young, the beautiful, the aged, to behoid and adore the wisdom and benignity of Him, whose wonderful works are now spread out before us, and to whom human pageants are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal,'-for 'the lilies of the valley are his, and Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'

Upon an occasion of such unalloyed interest and pleasure, it would ill become me to detain you with any labored or scientific dissertation, even had I the ability or the time to do so: I therefore choose rather to dwell on some of the more obvious advantages of your society, and enforce upon the public attention, the claims it so irresistibly presents to more general and zealous support.

The Maryland Horticultural Society was formed in 1832, by a few gentlemen of taste and education, who then determined to give to the long neglected subject their attention; and among its officers and members at that date, will be found several beloved fellow citizens, now no more, associated with many who are still its friends and patrons-they subsequently obtained an act of incorporation, which in its preamble declares the object to be, an association 'for the purpose of improving and encouraging the science and practice of horticulture, and of introducing into the state new species and varie ties of trees, fruits, plants, vegetables and flowers."

The first annual exhibition was held in June, 1833; and at this, its sixth anniversary, it presents to the public the most cheering evidences of its beneficial and successful progress. To an increased list of members, it has added and united by its own attractive pursuits, many of our admired and spirited townswomen, whose zeal and devotion have already imparted a charm and impulse to the society, not to be resisted by the most selfish and obdurate benedict or misanthrope; while, apart from these attractions and resources, it is now giving life and energy to innumerable cultivators of the soil, by awarding weekly and annual premiums to the most enterprising and successful among them, and thereby affording to industry and taste a stimulus, and to horticulture a prominent place among the sister arts. Indeed the present exhibition of flowers alone, might challenge competition in our country, while the rapid improvements manifested in the culture of fruits and vegetables since the society's foundation, will speak its best eulogy: and the regret must now arise, that in this, our Baltimore, distinguished for the beauty and moral loveliness of her daughters, and the valor and public spirit of her sons, so many years should have been suffered to elapse in which the culture of the gar den and the husbandry of the field (taught us thirty years ago by the West Indian emigrant) were without this great auxiliary and stimulant, and that more regard and attention is not now given to the society.

Around us, and on every hand, our hills and valleys are blooming with the growth of almost every plant and tree; and we are in our walks and rides enchanted by the rich scenes which open from some adjacent and once barren spot, where, emparadised in flowers,' the col tage of the horticulturalist peeps forth to win the heart and gratify the eye.

Our markets too, in the abundance they offer and the returns they make to the industrious and thrifty farmer and gardener, will convince you, that interest as well as pleasure, are moving onward, hand in hand, in the dif

fusion and enlargement of the society's benefits-while reddening apple, the luscious fig, the glowing pomeby its direct agency, every foot of ground near our city, granate, the juicy pear, the verdant olive, and the bendand landed property generally in its neighborhood, is ing vine, can be regarded as bright exceptions--these rapidly enhanced in value; and by being converted into being the offspring rather of poetry than mother earth. gardens and rural retreats, afford even to the dull edge From the days of Theophrastus to those of Pliny, of sated appetite,' some luscious fruit, or early plant during an interval of nearly four hundred years, there and vegetable, before strangers to our boards-and then had been only enumerated about six hundred plants, the ornamental trees which embosom so many cool se-regarded more for their medicinal than nourishing qualiquestered country seats, where the invalid and man of ties, and the account we have of them is very indistinct business may repair for renovation and repose-all pro-and unsatisfactory. Following came on the darker claim, with most 'miraculous organ,' the usefulness and the elegant and refined pleasures of horticulture.

ages, in which the few known arts of life shared the sad fate of civil liberty, leaving to the world the discovery, by a few Moorish and Arabian physicians, of one or two herbs-such as Rhubarb and Senna, which are now recognised in our materia medica.

The great Roman orator declared in one of his finest orations that there was no better pursuit in life, none more full of enjoyment or more worthy a freeman, than agriculture. The same may be said of the kindred art The Roman era, deriving, as it did, its taste for garwhich gave birth to this society: and Lord Bacon, the dening from Greece, to the extent it had gone there, great master of human learning, has borne testimony to opened a wider field to its cultivation. Numerous its value, in an essay on this subject, in which he de- beautiful passages in the Latin poets, prove the high scribes gardening and horticultural avocations as the estimation in which gardening was held among the purest of human pleasures as well as the greatest re- Romans. Tacitus describes a palace built by Nero, freshments to the spirits of men; and considers the per- which was on a site laid out on the principles of modern fection of this art, as the indication of a nation having gardening; he says, 'the usual and common luxuries attained the highest degree of civilization and refine- of gold and jewels, which adorned this palace were not ment. He says, in his quaint language, when ages so much to be admired, as the fields and lakes and flowgrow to civility and elegancy, men come to build state-ers, which here and there opened in prospects before it.' ly, sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were not the greater perfection.'

The sacred volume also breathes throughout its holy pages, the sanction and encouragement of rural and innocent pursuits; and the Creator, by placing our first parents in a garden-a paradise

And place of rural charms and various views,

But it is to modern times we must look for the revival
and creation of botany as a science. Gosner, Haller,
and Linnæus, established for it a system of investigation,
by which thousands of new and rare productions were
added to the catalogue of Ceres and Flora. These
great high-priests of nature, reduced at once, to fixed
principles and invariable rules, the study-and by the

With groves whose rich trees wept odorous gum and balm, classification of plants according to their natural affini-
Where flowers of all hues, and without thorn
The rose untended bloomed'-

seemed indeed to indicate the preference and favor
which the husbandman and gardener would ever receive
at his hand.

Profane history has brought down to us its mythology and civil rites, associated and invested with fruits and flowers; and the song of the Bacchanal and the lute of Pan, tell of the clustering grape and the overhanging bough. But the knowledge of plants was then greatly limited, and few, very few of the wonderful creations which modern botany has since disclosed, were known or regarded.

The revelations of the Creator to the tenants of Eden, doubtless discovered to them such productions of the earth as were necessary to their sustenance; but the Bible only speaks of the three general divisions of the vegetable world, into the grass, the herb and the tree; and Solomon, the most celebrated for his botanical knowedge, enumerates particularly the Mandrake, the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Hyssop that groweth on the wall, as most prominent in his day.

For centuries afterwards, botany was but the humble hand-maiden of medicine and surgery; hence we find the balm of Gilead extolled in Judea as the panacea of all diseases, and of more inestimable value than all our modern panaceas for the assuaging of the ills that 'flesh is heir to.'

ties, demonstrated, that like man, their domestic life was regulated and sweetened by the presence of the gentler sex, and their being depended upon constitutions and habits peculiar to themselves.

In England, during the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth, much of the taste and natural beauty of the gardens of Rome were lost sight of, and substituted by an artificial and grotesque deformity, which maintained for many years, and which, by torturing the box, the yew, and evergreens, into the shape of beasts and other whimsical forms, degraded the standard of horticulture ; so that many of the English gardens of that period are described, as being adorned with yew trees in the shape of giants-Noah's ark cut in holly-St. George and the dragon, in box-cypress lovers, laureline bears, and all the race of root-bound monsters which flourished, and looked tremendous around the edges of every grass plat.*

But a better spirit soon succeeded, and the works and philosophy of Dr. William Turner, the father of English botany and gardening, gave a right direction to its pursuit, and added countless treasures to the researches of his predecessor-and by the innumerable varieties of shrubs and flowers, to which he gave a local habitation and a name,' the sea-girt island became the home and nursery for almost every tree and plant; and it is now to the annals of English agriculture and gardening, that we look for the most valuable improvements in the use

The heroic age added little or nothing to the preced-ful and ornamental departments of horticulture. ing period, unless indeed the fabled gardens of the Hesperides and Alcinous, in which Homer has placed the

* See the eloquent address of Mr. Poinsett, in 1836, before the Horticultural Society of South Carolina.

Public gardens of any note and extent, owe also their establishment to modern times. The first known in The face of nature too, is more prolific and interesting, Europe, was that of Lorenzo de Medici, in Florence: and exhibits ten thousand beauties and benefits, un-afterwards the celebrated botanic garden of Padua was known to past ages. The history, therefore, of the vegetable world, written as it now is, in every language and on every green field, developed then but little compared with the present hour, in which we have assembled to celebrate its triumphs, and to behold, by the light of truth and christianity, what was denied to the darker eras of man.