210 
HINTS TO YOUNG GARDENERS ON MENTAL IMPROVEMENT. 
and when the review and analysis are completed, the student will have gained an 
important step towards acquiring a knowledge of composition, besides having 
learned to read with greater attention, relish, and benefit. His next effort may be 
of a similar nature, but on a work of a higher class ; and if fewer grammatical 
errors or improprieties occur, he may yet endeavour to divide long periods, to find 
happier and more significant modes of expression, to introduce relevant arguments, 
or elucidate obscure statements ; and, should the work be of a scientific nature, to 
insert illustrations from his own observation or experience, or from the combined 
opinions of other authors, reduced to a concise and original form. By the time this 
and other similar engagements have been accomplished, and carefully revised for at 
least the sixth time — cotemporaneously w^ith the epistolary disquisitions before 
proposed, and which should be conducted with equal diligence and care — the 
individual will be able to write with accuracy, perspicuity, and some degree of 
energy, upon any subject that may present itself, and of which he may possess a 
competent knowledge. 
Neither in the performance of the above initiatory operation, nor in the exercise 
of reading, would we recommend the student of horticulture to confine his attention 
to professional works. Books on any branch of natural or moral philosophy should 
be perused with equal avidity, and the best poetical works may likewise be advan- 
tageously indulged in or consulted, as nothing is more calculated to improve and 
refine the imaginative and inventive powers. 
In composing any essay, however brief, or upon what subject soever it may be, 
the principal art consists in committing the ideas to w^riting at first in as simple 
language as possible. By so doing, the train of thought is not interrupted to 
search for expressive phraseology ; and when the task is completed, the style may 
be refined, and polished, and elevated to any desired extent. Recurring to it 
occasionally, during a period of several weeks after first inditing it, will enable the 
writer to effect an astonishing improvement ; and this practice should never be 
neglected. 
Our observations on composition have been extended further than we had 
designed ; but the great importance of the subject, as affecting the character and 
prospects of the gardener, and, indeed, the interest and gratification of the whole 
horticultural world, will be a sufficient justification of their otherwise unwarrantable 
length. Of drawing we need only remark, that it is a peculiarly useful, in fact an 
essential, qualification to the gardener, and every opportunity should be embraced 
for its practice. The subject of oral communication will be included in a future 
article on Gardeners' Societies ; but some further suggestions, in continuation of 
our present paper, will appear in the ensuing Number. We cannot for the present 
conclude better than in the following appropriate words of Lord Bacon — " Reading 
makes a full man, writing a correct man, and speaking a ready man." 
