54 THE LITE. 



the goodly breadth of ground which it covers. 

 Beneath the shady brow of your laurel, you will 

 set the bright eye of a flower, and rather have a 

 few of Flora's bounteous smiles than wait on all 

 her little caprices and humours. You have other 

 work in hand, and will not despise the rearing of 

 a cabbage as large as the church bell, or of baking 

 apples as thickly grouped as a string of onions. 

 You will deal in the substantial as well as the 

 pretty ; and, insisting upon order, the chief in- 

 gredient of beauty, you will not tolerate weeds, 

 rubbish, broken branches, and scarcely a blank in 

 your drills of any crop. 



Thus have I set down, bona fide, all that I have 

 observed as to the effects of the bite; and I sin- 

 cerely hope that your first reluctance will be over- 

 come, by the assurance that the gentle infusion 

 will prove in many ways beneficial. But it will 

 require a little aid. When Socrates had meekly 

 swallowed the hemlock juice, he asked his physician 

 what he should do to assist its operation, in order, 

 no doubt, that he might be not half killed, but duly 

 and rightly affected according to the design of the 

 drug : and as most medicines require some vehicle 

 and coadjutor supposing that you have imbibed 

 my infusion, which, I am aware, is rather inefficient 

 by itself I recommend the following prescription, 

 which will in all probability ensure its success : 

 Read ' Thomson's Spring' for what the garden now 

 is ; and 'Milton's first days of Adam and Eve' for 

 what it was. The former will induce you to realise 



