I

V.

THE GARDEN.

To J. EVELYN, Efquire.

NEVER had any other defire so strong,

and fo like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be mafter at last of a small 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,

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

In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.

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

"Studiis florere ignobilis [p] otî:"

(though I could wish that he had rather faid, Nobilis otii," 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 first and hard-

[] Virg. G. iv. 564.

eft

eft ftep to it, by abandoning all ambitions a hopes in this world, and by retiring from noife of all bufinefs and almoft company, yo ftick ftill in the inn of a hired house and gard among weeds and rubbish; and without th pleasantest work of human industry, the in provement of fomething which we call (r very properly, but yet we call) our own. I 2 gone out from Sodom, but I am not yet ar ved at my little Zoar. O let me escape thith (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. do not look back yet; but I have been forced ftop, and make too many halts. You may wo der, Sir, (for this feems a little too extravaga and pindarical for profe) what I mean by all th preface; it is to let you know, that though have miffed, like a chemift, my great end, y I account my affections and endeavours well re warded by fomething that I have met with b the bye; which is, that they have procured me fome part in your kindness and esteem and thereby the honour of having my name f advantageously recommended to posterity, b the epiftle you are pleased to prefix to the mo ufeful book that has been written in that kind [q, and which is to last as long as months and years

[9] the most useful book that has been written in that kind] Mr. Evelyn's Kalendarium hortenfe. dedicated to Mr. Cowley- The title explains the propriety of the compliment, that this book was to Taft as long as months and years,

Among many other arts and excellencies, which you enjoy, I am glad to find this favourite of mine the moft predominant; that you choose this for your wife, though you have hundreds of other arts for your concubinés, though you know them, and beget fons upon them all (to which you are rich enough to allow great legacies), yet the iffue of this feems to be defigned by you to the main of the eftate; you have taken most pleasure in it, and bestowed moft charges upon its education: and I doubt not to see that book, which you are pleased to promise to the world, and of which you have given us a large earnest in your calendar, as accomplished, as any thing can be expected from an extraordinary wit, and no ordinary expences, and a long experience. I know no body that poffeffes more private happiness than you do in your garden; and yet no man, who makes his happiness more public, by a free communication of the art and knowledge of it to others.. All that I myfelf am able yet to do, is only to recommend to mankind the fearch of that felicity, which you inftruct them how to find and to enjoy.

Happy art thou, whom God does blefs
With the full choice of thine own happiness;
And happier yet, because thou'rt blest
With prudence, how to choose the best:

In books and gardens thou haft plac'd aright

(Things, which thou well doft understand And both doft make with thy laborious hand). Thy noble, innocent delight:

And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again doft Both pleasures more refin'd and sweet; The fairest garden in her looks,

And in her mind the wifest books.

Oh, who would change these soft, yet solid joys, For empty shows, and fenseless noys;

And all which rank ambition breeds, Which feem fuch beauteous flowers, and are poisonous weeds ?

2.

When God did man to his own likeness make,
As much as clay, though of the purest kind,
By the great potter's art refin'd,
Could the divine impreffion take,

He thought it fit to place him where
A kind of heaven too did appear,

As far as earth could fuch a likeness bear::
That man no happiness might want,
Which earth to her firft mafter could afford,
He did a garden for him plant

By the quick hand of his omnipotent word.
As the chief help and joy of human life,
He gave him the first gift; first, ev'n before a wife.

3

For God, the univerfal architect,

"T had been as easy to erect

A Louvre or Escurial, or a tower

That might with heaven communication hold,

As Babel vainly thought to do of old

In the world's fabric thofe were shewn,
And the materials were all his own..

But well he knew, what place would best agree
With innocence, and with felicity:

And we elsewhere still seek for them in vain;
If any part of either yet remain,

If

any part of either we expect,

This may our judgment in the search direct;
God the first garden made, and the first city, Cain.

4.

O bleffed fhades! o gentle cool retreat

From all th' immoderate heat,

In which the frantic world does burn and sweat!
This does the lion-star, ambition's rage;
This avarice, the dog-ftar's thirft affwage;
Every where else their fatal power we see,
They make and rule man's wretched destiny:
They neither fet, nor disappear,

But tyrannize o'er all the year;

Whilft we ne'er feel their flame or influence here: The birds, that dance from bough to bough, And fing above in every tree,

Are not from fears and cares more free,

Than we, who lie, or fit or walk below,
And should by right be fingers too.

What prince's choir of mufic can excell

That, which within this shade does dwell?
To which we nothing pay or give;

They, like all other poets live,

Without reward, or thanks for their obliging pains ; 'Tis well, if they become not prey:

The whistling winds add their lefs artful strains,
And a grave base the murmuring fountains play;

Nature