1898.] ESSAYS. 97 



those who can. Just think of fulfilling the old prophetic 

 vision, comforting earth's waste places, making her desert 

 blossom as the rose, rendering the wilderness like Eden ! 

 When one's own wilderness persistently remains a wilderness, 

 and one's little bit of desert refuses to blossom with anything 

 but a few good-natured dandelions, one can appreciate good gar- 

 dening in others, I can assure you. The fact is I had a garden 

 before I came to Worcester ; fortunately I had a good old neigh- 

 bor, too. I remember I used to toil with exertions that were 

 something frightful. My back used to ache as his never did. 

 I used to read up until I could talk gardening in a way that 

 simply overwhelmed him, and yet my flowers would never 

 grow, at least never to anything but leaves, and my vegetables 

 never came to enough to feed the caterpillars and grubs who 

 forced themselves upon my hospitality. If it had not been for 

 my good neighbor, I should have fared very poorly indeed. 

 What a happy man it made him ! I used to envy him a thou- 

 sand times. He seemed able to forget all frets and weariness 

 and meanness. He was in politics, and in his garden he seemed 

 to find some relief even from the turmoil of politics, and things 

 must be pretty soothing to quiet a man's mind under such 

 circumstances, as our Mr. Walker could assure you. His 

 flowers and vegetables seemed to be so companionable, they 

 never quarrelled, and as you know by your experience, no 

 doubt, they reward the least attention and kindness a hundred- 

 fold and more. Being an ignoramus myself, as to the technique 

 of the art, I have had to content myself with what is really the 

 minister's main business — the study of relations. Let me show 

 you what I mean. The manufacturer, the merchant, the me- 

 chanic, knows immeasurably more about the way, the technique, 

 the process, the pushing of his business than I do. The 

 mechanic knows about his tools, and has a skill to use them in 

 a way that fills me with wonder and despair. The farmer 

 knows more about crops and cattle and soil in half an hour than 

 I am afraid I shall in all my life. Even the liquor dealer knows 

 how to work that miracle, how to make ten-year-old whiskey 

 in ten minutes in a fashion that I should never dream of. But 



