54 THE MANSE GARDEN. 



into which many are as unwittingly drawn as a ship 

 when it first touches the noiseless edge of a vortex. 

 On the decay of the digestive powers, through the 

 want of proper exercise, it seems reasonable and 

 harmless to call in the aid of a dram ; but the law is 

 violated by that decision, and all future miseries are 

 but the result and the punishment of that first viola- 

 tion. Let it be a fixed thing that temperance, air, 

 exercise, with diversity of attention, are essential to 

 a healthful and useful existence. The law holds on 

 its even tenor, regular as the sun, and steadfast as 

 the mind of the Eternal. Conformity or suffering 

 is the only alternative : let the character of the trans- 

 gressor be in other respects good or bad, the punish- 

 ment is equally sure. God doth not suffer his law 

 to be changed : 'he changes the countenance of the 

 violator, and sendeth him away. 



To render your observance of the above law both 

 cheerful and constant, nothing can be more effica- 

 cious than to betake yourself to the study and labour 

 of your garden. In summer or in winter you will 

 always find there something to do, and something 

 that will give pleasure when it is done. Your re- 

 quired exercise never wants an object ; one, too, that 

 sufficiently draws off attention from more serious 

 things, and has that peculiar interest which arises 

 from a work that is progressive. Whilst the mind 

 is refreshed by a continual variety, the exercise to 

 which the body is called, has not only the advantage 

 of being in the open air, but of accommodating itself, 

 by various degrees of activity, to every change of 

 temperature. In the training of trees, the mind is 

 agreeably occupied, whilst the free air and moderate 



