Many  anecdotes  of  his  beneficence  remain,  but  three  must  suffice  in
this  place.  The  object  of  the  first  was  a  poor  clergyman,  a  class  who,
considering  the  rank  they  are  expected  to  support,  the  expense  of  their
education,  and  the  wealth  of  their  more  opulent  brethren,  which
operates  as  a  direct  tax  upon  the  laborious  and  slenderly-provided,  may
be  called  the  poorest  of  the  poor.    This  door.keeper  of  the  Temple

weary  of  giving  them  good  advice.  Did  he  regard  them  as  his  fellow  Englishmen,  or
did  he  foresee  that  they  were  to  become  a  great  and  rival  nation  ?  He  constantly
urged  the  Virginians,  in  particular,  to  make  a  better  use  of  thtdr  soil,  **  to  bethink
themselves  in  time  of  a  more  permanent  staple  than  a  plant  whose  consumption  on]y
depends  on  custom  and  caprice,  and  this  custom  daily  declining."  His  suggestion
would  at  least  beautify  their  oountiy.  "  Vines,"  said  he,  **  will  thrive  weU  in  your
oountiy ;  but  imitate  nature  in  their  cultivation;  don't  keep  them  dose  to  the  ground,
as  we  are  forced  to  do  in  this  and  other  northern  European  climates,  for  the  sake  of
a  little  sun  and  heat  to  ripen  the  grape;  your  summer  heats  exceed,  as  much  as  oun
fall  short ;  allow  them,  therefore,  longer  stems,  let  them  he  trained  to,  and  supported
by  trees,  and  hide  iheirjruit  among  thefoUagt^  as  in  the  warmer  countries  of  Europe."
From  the  picturesque  eye  which  he  evinced  in  this  and  other  short  touches^  and  from
his  enamoured  attachment  to  plants,  we  doubt  not  that  Peter  ColUnson,  had  .le  pos-
sessed or  acquired  the  accomplishment  of  verse,  might  have  written  a  veiy  respectable
Georgic.  Gardening,  indeed,  was  his  hobby.  He  had  correspondents  in  aU  parts  of
Europe,  in  America,  in  Asia,  even  at  Pekin,  and  they  aU  sought  to  oblige  him  by
presents  of  rare  seeds.  Had  he  been  a  monarch,  a  present  of  seeds  would  have  pur-
chased his  alliance.
