Can all your tap'ftries, or your pictures, show
More beauties, than in herbs and flowers do grow?
Fountains and trees our wearied pride do please,
Ev'n in the midst of gilded palaces,
And in your towns, that prospect gives delight,
Which opens round the country to our fight.
Men to the good, from which they rashly fly,
Return at laft; and their wild luxury
Does but in vain with those true joys contend,
Which nature did to mankind recommend.
The man who changes gold for burnish'd brafs,
Or fmall right gems for larger ones of glass,
Is not, at length, more certain to be made
Ridiculous, and wretched by the trade,
Than he, who fells a folid good, to buy
The painted goods of pride and vanity.
If thou be wife, no glorious fortune choose,
Which 'tis but pain to keep, yet grief to lofe;
For, when we place ev'n trifles in the heart,
With trifles too, unwillingly we part.
An humble roof, plain bed, and homely board,
More clear, untainted pleasures do afford,
Than all the tumult of vain greatness brings
To kings, or to the favourites of kings.
The horned deer, by nature arm'd fo well,
Did with the horse in common pasture dwell;
And, when they fought, the field it always wan,
Till the ambitious horse begg'd help of man,
And took the bridle, and thenceforth did reign
Brayely alone, as lord of all the plain :
But never after could the rider get
From off his back, or from his mouth the bit.
So they, who poverty too much do fear,
T' avoid that weight, a greater burden bear;
That they might power above their equals have,
To cruel masters they themselves enslave.
For gold, their liberty exchang'd we fee,
That fairest flower, which crowns humanity *.
And all this mischief does upon them light,
Only, because they know not how, aright,
That great, but fecret, happiness to prize,
That 's laid up in a little, for the wife :
That is the best and easiest estate,
Which to a man fits clofe, but not too strait;
'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 pleasures to fulfil :
Shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey;
The horse doth with the horseman run away.
The poet, as ufual, expreffes his own feeling: but he does more, he expreffes it very claffically. The allufion is to the ancient cuftom of wearing wreaths or garlands of flowers, on any occafion of joy and feftivity. H.
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 she can ask, when she luxurious grows. The specious inconveniences, that wait Upon a life of business, and of state, He fees (nor does the fight difturb his reft) By fools defir'd, by wicked men poffeft. Thus, thus (and this deferv'd great Virgil's praise) The old Corycian yeoman pafs'd his days; Thus his wife life Abdolonymus spent : Th' ambaffadors, which the great emperor To offer him a crown, with wonder found The reverend gardener hoeing of his ground; Unwillingly, and flow, and discontent, From his lov'd cottage to a throne he went; And oft he stopt, in his triumphant way, And oft look'd back, and oft was heard to say, Not without fighs, Alas! I there forfake 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 ask, Oh thou, the whole world's eye,
See'ft thou a man that happier is than I?
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 endlefs wealth? faid he.
None, none of thefe. Who can this Aglaüs be?
After long fearch, and vain enquiries paft,
In an obfcure Arcadian vale at laft
(Th' Arcadian life has always. fhady been).
Near Sopho's town (which he but once had feen)
This Aglaüs, who monarchs' envy drew,
Whofe happiness the gods ftood witness to,
This mighty Aglaüs, was labouring found,
With his own hands, in his own little ground..
So, gracious God! (if it may lawful be,
Among thofe foolish gods to mention thee)
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 earnest to me lend,
Let my life fleep, and learn to love her end.
Never had any other defire fo ftrong and so like to covetoufnefs, as that one which I have had always, that I might be mafter at laft of a small houfe and large garden, with very moderate conveniences 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 defign beyond my wall) whole and intire to lie,
In no unactive eafe, and no unglorious poverty.
Or, as Virgil has faid, fhorter and better for me, that I might there
"Studiis florere ignobilis otî *:"
(though I could wish that he had rather faid, "Nobilis oti," when he spoke of his own.) But several acciVirg. Georg. iv. 564.
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