1S46.] Rural Life. 87,: 



autumn — the melodious concert of the birds — the sunset splendors 

 of the western sky — the congenial serenity of summer's bland and 

 dewy eve — quite as elevating to the mind, soothing to the soul, 

 and congenial to the heart, as sublime and inspiring as " the stir 

 of the great Babel," and the deafening surge of the living deep, 

 which resounds through all her gates? 



There is a great deal of enjoyment to be derived from perform- 

 ing the different operations of gardening and farming, indepen- 

 dent altogether of the health resulting from this kind of exercise. 

 To labor for the sake of arriving at a certain result, and to be 

 successful in attaining it, are, as cause and effect, attended by a 

 cei tain degree of satisfaction to the mind, however unimportant 

 the results obtained. 



It is not only a condition of our nature, that in order to secure 

 health and cheerfulness, we must labor, but we must also labor in 

 such a way as to produce something useful or agreeable. A man 

 who plants a tree or sows a grass-plot in his yard, lays a more 

 sure foundation for enjoyment, than he who builds a wall or lays 

 down a paved walk. 



To dig, to hoe, to plow and to rake, are not operations requir- 

 ing much skill; but their value consists in preparing for crops, or 

 in encouraging the growth of crops already coming forward. 



One of the greatest of all the sources of enjoyment resulting 

 from the endless variety which it produces, either by the perpe- 

 tual progress of vegetation which is going forward in it to matu- 

 rity, dormancy, or decay, or by the almost innumerable kinds of 

 plants which may be raised in even the smallest gardens. Even 

 trees are undergoing perpetual changes throughout the year; and 

 trees change also in every succeeding year, relatively to that 

 which is past, because they become larger and larger as they ad- 

 vance in age, and acquire more of their characteristic and mature 

 forms. 



Those who are partial to the country — and where is the man of 

 genius who feels not a pride and delight approaching to ecstacy 

 from the contemplation of its scenery, and the happiness which 

 its contribution affords? — those who have paid attention to the 



