164 THE GARDEN AN INDEX OF THE MIND. 



Give the horse half a bushel of oats, or one peck of 

 corn — if he has been used to grain — as soon as you 

 lead him into the stable, and he will fill himself in one 

 hour or two, and be willing to lie down and enjoy a 

 nap, even before you retire to rest yourself. 



In any part of the country, if you see the grain put 

 into the manger, you may be pretty sure the hostler 

 has not forgotten his duty. 



THE GARDEN AN INDEX OF THE MIND. 



Some old sage writer has said, if you desire to 

 judge correctly of the character of a man's mind, go 

 into his garden, and observe how much order or dis- 

 order, how much neatness or negligence, appears there. 

 We suspect there is more in this, as a test of a man's 

 mental character, than there is in phrenology or physi- 

 ognomy. vSolomon has said, " I went by the field of 

 the slothful^ and by the vineyard of the man void of 

 understanding ; and, lo, it was all grown over with 

 thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof; and 

 the stone wall thereof was broken down." Such was 

 the phrenology of Solomon's time. He considered a 

 slovenly vineyard or garden good evidence of a 

 slovenly mind, or a mind void of understanding. 



You may depend upon it, when you see a man's 

 fields and gardens laid out with good order and taste, 

 and notice the neatness of its cultivation, that that 

 man's mind is like a well-arranged library : every class 

 of books has its general department, and every book 

 its appropriate place within that department. So with 

 that mental library-room, the brain. A good garden is 

 an evidence that all his knowledge is reduced to sys- 

 tem, and is readily at command. His head is not full 

 of cobwebs, but is as neat as a parlor swept and gar- 

 nished. The external will generally correspond with 

 the internal. A man's plans will appear in his opera- 



