I am rather inclined to think, however, that it was from the habit of reading much - of reading to people - and of writing out important or striking passages in a scrap-book, that I may fairly attribute my proficiency in this respect. Spelling is doubtless learnt by the eye; and I cannot consequently think that the placing incorrect forms before a pupil is a mode likely to convey accurate and lasting expressions. Here, then, I have indicated three points for my young gardener's attention - he should be able to write well, read intelligently, and spell correctly.

I will now briefly point out how I supplemented my meagre school education. Although, let me tell you, I was sent regularly to school from the age of about four to fourteen, to the best fountain of knowledge in the village, yet my knowledge at the end of the period was limited to imperfection in the three It's. I was a precious dunce, observe, at that time; and my friends even now do not hesitate occasionally to remind me of my stupidity. Before I proceed, however, it occurs to me that I should tell you a little of my early personal history, that you may perceive what a good boy I was if a stupid one. My father was a very respectable man - what the world would call a gentleman, what I should say poor but prowl. He had a farm, but his ideas connected with farming were certainly very crude. He could discuss the articles in ' Bell's Weekly Messenger' (his regular companion), but could not handle a plough, nor teach a man how to make a ridge. He had a large garden, and his ambition was to pick the first handful of unripe Peas, or pigmy Kidney-beans, or marble-sized Potatoes. I was consequently early initiated by my grandfather (who was living retired in a comfortable little box near, and who rejoiced in the acknowledged position of the first amateur gardener in the district) into the mysteries above alluded to; and here as a boy I spent my spare hours.

I managed to save out of my pocket-money and presents from three to four shillings a-week (a large sum for a boy, you will say); but I worked hard for it, not for the love of the money, but from genuine interest in the work: most of this I spent in flowers and periodicals. My mother was a florist, and consequently tolerated my boyish extravagance. The nearest nurseryman and bookseller might well have wished that all the neighbouring boys of my age had been equally fond of gardening, and had been correspondingly well furnished with funds. I had the finest collection of Fuchsias, Geraniums, Dahlias, Carnations, and Auriculas in the district. I grew the earliest vegetables, and gathered the primest fruit. I must be a gardener - 1 was a natural-born one; and I was accordingly apprenticed in the gardens of a sister of the present Earl Russell. So here I am at length commencing a career full of hope - the pet pupil of the clergyman's sister, the bosom friend of a neighbouring solicitor's son, the protege of a noble lady, but, alas ! the pupil of one who little understood my openness of character, and honesty of principle, and independent character.

Jealousy sapped the foundation of my hopes: he who should have been my instructor proved a drawback to me; he who should have been my friend proved my bitterest enemy. My young friends, I say this to caution you against being too sanguine about anticipated results, and to warn you against what you will be sure to have to encounter if you aim at making a mark in the world - the jealousy of mean-spirited mediocrity. And now I will briefly tell you how I endeavoured to supplement my school education. In the garden was another apprentice about twenty-four years of age; I was about fifteen. Four garden-men; one old man, a weeder, and two garden-women, - this was the regular staff. Additional men were set on, of course, as required. This is how I improved my reading.

Picture to yourselves an old shed about 7 feet high, 10 feet square, with one small window. There were several fireplaces for the vineries coaled from this shed - all flues then. Coal packed at one end of the shed, and a short form where one could be introduced formed our dining-room chairs; our laps were our tables. I at first boarded with the head-gardener, until, as I told you before, jealousy roused his ire, and he then found it was inconvenient for me to continue longer in the house. It was so much additional work, indeed, for his wife and servant, although, dunce as I was, I used to assist his son,a little younger than myself, in his school lessons. Well, it was a good thing, perhaps, after all. How unable are we to calculate upon the effects of little things ! How little do we know whether, when we cry out like Jacob of old, "all things are against me," they are not really working for our good ! To proceed. At our breakfast and dinner hours, when the scanty meal, in the rustic manner I have described, was despatched, you might have seen me elevated upon my coal pulpit, and reading, at the request of the men, to them from Maw and Abercrombie, or from a new serial publication of the time, the name of which I now forget.

This reading was varied with the continuous perusal of Doddridge's 'Rise and Progress of Pteligion in the Soul,' and when that was finished, with Baxter's 'Saints' Everlasting Rest.' These latter readings were specially given at the request of the old men; and vivid is the picture now before me of the frequent streaming eye and gurgling moan as my youthful voice poured forth balm to aged breasts. Well has it been said that the best way of retaining knowledge is by imparting it to others. Valuable knowledge I gained in this way, then, which has had a powerful influence upon me through life. Improvement in the art of reading I made then, without for a moment suspecting that I was benefiting myself. And this is the lesson I would have you to learn: "Go," as opportunity is afforded you, "and do likewise." But how was my orthography improved? Why, in the first place, I believe by this very exercise in reading, but in perhaps quite as great a degree by the following exercise I prescribed to myself. I know not what led to my adopting it, but I should imagine the following was somewhat instrumental: In reading to the men, I was naturally asked the meanings of certain terms used; and I daresay, regarded as I was as an oracle of wisdom and knowledge, self-pride led me to endeavour to avoid showing ignorance before my worshippers.

That little insinuating, vanity-supporting, yet ignoble feeling of arrogating to yourself what you must know you do not possess, or accepting the homage of the Lystrians of a godhead blasphemously ascribed to you - how common to the little-minded spirit of man ! Well, I suppose it was some such feeling as this which led me, after my returning from daily work, to go to my bedroom (I had no private study), and there, with dictionary in hand, or other book of reference I may have possessed, to discover the meanings of difficult or scientific terms in forthcoming daily readings, and having discovered them, to enter them carefully in a memorandum-book provided for that purpose. Thus you see several objects were gained by this self-prescribed course of study: I must read thoughtfully; I must read understandingly; and what I was ignorant of must he discovered. I was led to accuracy of expression. I was practically taught the art of condensation; for of course I had no desire to spend unnecessary labour in my general education. I learnt the meaning of a large vocabulary, and writing the words down correctly was of course an orthographical exercise for me. These, then, were the two principal supplementary methods by which I learnt to spell correctly.

Here I must observe that many years of experience have convinced me that no surer way of attaining so desirable an accomplishment (if 1 may so term it) as correct spelling is possible. It is a natural process; and everyday experience confirms the usefulness of the practice. I know a young man who was employed as an errand-boy in a solicitor's office who had no education, but who, having by his perseverance conquered the art of forming his letters, was gradually employed in copying in the office, and who by this means became an accurate speller. By the same process, moreover, a good business-hand is readily attained; for as you would write with accuracy and legibby, you must necessarily at first write slowly and carefully; and so the preliminary groundwork in a gardener's mental education is slowly but surely established.

[Will the writer of this kindly favour us again with his address - which we regret having mislaid - as we wish to communicate with him. - Ed].

(To be continued).