48 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



useless counting of petals, prosing about anthers, and 

 dosing away your time amongst poppy heads. You 

 will prefer a goodly laurel, placed with good effect ; 

 and having this noble advantage, that whilst it is fair 

 to view, there is no further trouble in all time coming 

 with 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 o'f 

 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 ingredient 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 sincerely 

 hope that your first reluctance will be overcome, 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 accord- 

 ing 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 fol- 

 lowing prescription, which will in all probability in- 

 sure its success: Read "Thomson's Spring" for 

 what the garden now is ; and " Milton's First Days 



