6 THE CHRONICLES OF A GARDEN. 



There is a certain charm to most people in the mechanical 

 part of their work ; they like doing it, they cannot tell why, 

 even where it is so jmrely mechanical as to leave the mind 

 free to follow its own fancies. The fingers seem to feel 

 pleasure in being employed, and no one w^ho has ever tried 

 the experiment can deny the fact, that, when suffering 

 under anxiety, ay, or even in sorrow^, they have found 

 more relief of mind from some work of the hand than they 

 could derive from attempts to occupy and employ the 

 mind. Any gardening work takes a high rank among the 

 efficacious means of soothing and occupying a harassed 

 mind ; and it would be ungrateful indeed to Him w^ho 

 " gives us all things richly to enjoy," not to acknowledge 

 His goodness in thus making work so often an alleviation 

 of our cares, and also in granting us the means of recrea- 

 tion and relief that such pleasant labour confers. I have 

 rambled off from the subject of our garden to the delights 

 of hearty work, but I will allow myself the pleasure of an 

 extract ere I return to my subject. 



" Yes, we should all have our w^ork to do ; work of 

 some kind. I do not look upon him as an object of com- 

 passion who finds it in hard manual labour, so long as the 

 frame is not overtasked, and springs after rest with renewed 

 vigour to its toil. Hard labour is a source of more plea- 

 sure in a great city, in a single day, than all which goes 

 by the especial name of pleasure throughout the year. We 

 must all have our task. We are wretched without it." * 



It is no small advantage, in this changeable climate, 

 * " Thorndale ; or. Conflict of Opinion." 



