MOTIVES TO GARDENING. 55 



by sight what the poet has so beautifully figured 

 upon your imagination ; and the latter, when you 

 are charmed with the first simple delights of man 

 in watching the progress of flower, and tree, will 

 remind you that human imagination cannot go 

 farther in the conceptions of earthly felicity than 

 the Creator did when he put the best of his crea- 

 tures (two, they were not one) into a garden to 

 keep and dress it. I pity thee, brother, if thou, 

 being alone, art incapable of receiving this part of 

 my prescription! There is nothing that bears any 

 resemblance to paradise for thee. There is no 

 beauty in the rose, or the ripe cherry, except you 

 have more eyes and more lips than your own. But 

 there is more of the prescription, and perhaps more 

 suited to your case. 



Independently of the pleasure, let the use of 

 your garden be considered the use, I mean not for 

 your living, but for your life. Your mode of life is 

 sedentary ; you walk abroad, it is true ; but if 

 you happen to see your face reflected from the deep 

 black pool, as you wander by the river side, you 

 will discover that the last theme of your studies 

 has left its print still upon your brow, and you will 

 infer from that index, that the solitary walk, which 

 has set the limbs in motion, has produced no change 

 of action in the brain, the heart, the liver, or other 

 organs which are strongly affected by the exercise 

 of the thinking faculties. But besides the walk 

 taken purely for health, you have many out-of- 

 door duties, to the performance of which you must 



