62 THE STUDY AND THE GARDEN. 



you pass along, but you leave no abiding trace on 

 the path that you have trode. 



It is more important to observe, that whilst the 

 mind is invigorated by diversity of pursuit, there 

 is this further benefit, that the reciprocity of mental 

 and manual exertion creates for each an increase of 

 relish and aptitude : the garden recreation quickens 

 the appetite for study, and the quiescent posture of 

 study renews the desire of garden activity. Who 

 ever has maintained, for a sufficient length of time, 

 a regular system of employment, in which bodily 

 and mental application are upheld in due proportion, 

 will be surprised by the spontaneous appearance of 

 those energies which hitherto lay dormant in his 

 frame; nor is this the discovery of a fact merely 

 it is a source of delight; for the healthful play of 

 either muscular or mental power is as certainly a 

 pleasure to the human creature, as skipping is to 

 the lamb, or singing to the bird. A man used to 

 this renovating process cannot become sluggish, and 

 is a stranger to the sloth that eats into the bone. 

 He keeps disease at a distance; and duties, which 

 to the sluggard are a load, are light and easy to 

 him. Whatever he has in hand he has also in 

 heart; his movements are impetuous ; so that it is 

 dangerous, from the velocity with which he is 

 carried, to meet him at the turn of a corner ; and 

 when the bodily energies are for a time suspended, 

 but not exhausted, and therei s a return to study, 

 he enjoys, in the exercise of the thinking faculties, 

 an actual revelry in the flowing of thoughts, which 



