THE MANSE GARDEN. 55 



exertion are admirably calculated for relieving, in the 

 early part of the week, the languor and debility inci- 

 dent to the labours of the pulpit. When the air is 

 colder, and the frame more energetic, the saw and 

 the pruning knife, the one toilsome and the other 

 easy, are excellent companions; and the spade, in one 

 half hour, will bring on a summer glow in the coldest 

 days of winter. Here, then, you have a kind of 

 exercise, suited to all circumstances, ever at hand, 

 and the motive to which is ever new, and strength- 

 ened by the love of progress, and the grateful survey 

 of the work you have accomplished. A mere walk, 

 compared with this, is like the amusement which 

 children take in writing their names on the sand of 

 the seashore ; you derive advantage from the motion 

 as 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 humane creature, as skipping to the lamb, or 



