Those of the poor who are disposed to take a real interest in their gardens as is the case of thousands of the English peasantry, instead of finding their summer evening occupations in their allotments wearisome after their day of other toil, seem to find relaxation in the comparatively light work which they thus perform for _themselves_; and in the pleasurable contemplation of their own flowers, though they be but _common_ beauties, and of their own tiny crops, they feel that calmness and tranquillity, that quiet satisfaction, which lay the passions at rest, and therefore indispose for the boisterous mirth and the ungodly society of the frequenters of the beer-house or the gin-shop. Poultry, pigeons, and rabbits, may be reared by young people, both for amusement and profit. The child who understands much of the natural history of domestic animals from practical observation, and perceives the force of those influences which unite the parent and the offspring, will so far sympathize with, and apprehend the nature of, those influences, as to feel pain at the thought of wantonly dissociating that connection, and would be far less likely "to rob the poor birds of their young," than the child who had not been familiarized with the nature and habits of the feathered race. Children who have watched over a brood of chickens from the moment of their first disengagement from the shell, and witnessed the instinct with which the Creator causes them to come at the call of their mother, and contemplate the love with which "the hen gathers her chickens under her wings," will take no pleasure in destroying that life of which they had anxiously traced the progress from the hour in which the first sign of developed animation appeared. It is improbable that the boy (and far more so that the girl, who is naturally kind) to whose hand the birds have fearlessly looked for food, while they clamorously delighted in his presence, could in his manhood witness any torturing of the feathered race, such as the diabolical barbarity of throwing at cocks on Shrove Tuesday, which used to disgrace Great Britain; or take pleasure in the barbarities of a cock-fight[A] or a gander-fight.[B] For those who are excluded from the enjoyments of rural life, and those occupations to which I have referred, there remain other pursuits of extreme interest, according to their respective tastes--geology, chemistry, mechanics, which employ both the head and the hand. Many a youth may be taught "sermons in stones," &c.--see the quotation in Shakspeare, _As You Like It_--and be kept from bad company, by having access to a lathe, and becoming practically "a tool-making animal," who, from his distaste to books, would be otherwise miserably destitute of rational employment. I do not wish to see either young or old persons too much "Agog for novelty where'er it lies, In mosses, fleas, or cockleshells, or flies"--