'Tis like a fhoe; it pinches, and it burns,
Too narrow; and too large, it overturns.
My dearest friend, ftop thy defires at laft,
And chearfully enjoy the wealth thou haft.
And, if me ftill feeking for more you fee,
Chide, and reproach, defpife and laugh at me.
Money was made, not to command our will,
But all our lawful pleafures to fulfil.
Shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey;
The horse doth with the horfeman run away.

THE COUNTRY LIFE.

Lib. IV. Plantarum.

BLEST be the man (and bleft he is) whom e'er (Plac'd far out of the roads of hope or fear) A little field, and little garden, feeds : The field gives all that frugal nature needs; The wealthy garden liberally beftows All the can afk, when fhe luxurious grows. The fpecious inconveniences, that wait Upon a life of business, and of ftate, He fees (nor does the fight difturb his reft) By fools defir'd, by wicked men poffeft.

Thus,

Thus, thus (and this deferv'd great Virgil's praise):
The old Corycian yeoman pafs'd his days;
Thus his wife life Abdolonymus fpent:

Th' ambaffadors, which the great emperor fent
To offer him a crown, with wonder found
The reverend gardner howing of his ground
Unwillingly and flow and discontent,

From his lov'd cottage, to a throne he went."
And oft he ftopt in his triumphant way;

And oft look'd back, and oft was heard to fay,
Not without fighs, Alas, I there forsake
A happier kingdom, than I go to take!

Thus Aglaüs (a man unknown to men,

But the gods knew and therefore lov'd him then []),
Thus liv'd obfcurely then without a name,
Aglaüs, now confign'd t' eternal fame.
For Gyges, the rich king, wicked and great,
Prefum'd, at wife Apollo's Delphic feat
Prefum'd, to afk, Qh thou, the whole world's eye,
See'ft thou a man, that happier is than I?

[o]-lov'd him then] Emphatically, then; i. e. when unknown to men: for here lay the wonder (to which the poet, by his following ftory, would reconcile us), that an obfcure man fhould be the favourite of heaven, or, in the eye of true wifdom, deferve to be reputed happy.

N 2

The

The god, who fcorn'd to flatter man, reply'd,
Aglaüs happier is. But Gyges cry'd,

In a proud rage, Who can that Aglaüs be?
We have heard, as yet, of no fuch king as he.
And true it was, through the whole earth around-
No king of fuch a name was to be found.
Is fome old hero of that name alive,

Who his high race does from the gods derive?
Is it fome mighty general, that has done
Wonders in fight, and god-like honours won?
Is it fome man of endless wealth, said he?
None, none of thefe. Who can this Aglaüs be?
After long fearch and vain inquiries paft,
In an obfcure Arcadian vale at laft,

(Th' Arcadian life has always fhady [p] been)
Near Sopho's town (which he but once had feen)
This Aglaus, who monarchs envy drew,
Whofe happiness the gods flood witness to,
This mighty Aglaüs was labouring found,
With his own hands, in his own little ground.
So, gracious God [9], (if it may lawful be,
Among those foolish gods to mention thee)
[p]always fhady] A well-chofen word, implying,
at once, repofe and obfcurity.

[1] So, gracious God, &c.] These concluding eight lines are written in the author's best manner, which is (as I have feveral times obferved), when he expreffes his own feeling, along with his ideas.

So let me act, on fuch a private stage,
The last dull scenes of my declining age;
After long toils and voyages in vain,
This quiet port let my toft veffel gain;
Of heavenly reft, this earneft to me lend,
Let my life fleep, and learn to love her end [r].

To J. EVELYN, Esquire,

I NEVER had any other defire so strong,

and fo like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a fmall house and large garden, with very moderate conveniencies joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life only to the culture of them, and study of nature;

[r] love her end] i. e. death, of which sleep is the image.

N 3

And

And there (with no defign beyond my wall) whole and intire to lie,

In no unactive cafe, and no unglorious poverty.

Or, as Virgil has faid, fhorter and better for me, that I might there

"Studiis florere ignobilis otî [s]:"

(though I could wish that he had rather faid, "Nobilis otî," when he spoke of his own.) But feveral accidents of my ill fortune have difappointed me hitherto, and do ftill, of that felicity; for though I have made the firft and hardest step to it, by abandoning all ambitions and hopes in this world, and by retiring from the noife of all bufinefs and almost company, yet I ftick ftill in the inn of a hired house and garden, among weeds and rubbish; and without that pleasantest work of human industry, the improvement of fomething which we call (not very properly, but yet we call) our own. I am gone out from Sodom, but I am not yet ar[] Virg, Georg. iv. 564. rived