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'st 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 past,
In an obfcure Arcadian vale at last

(Th' Arcadian life has always fhady been)

3

Near Sopho's town (which he but once had seen)},
This Aglaüs, who monarchs' envy drew,
Whofe happiness the gods stood 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 ftage,
The laft dull scenes of my declining age;
After long toils and voyages in vain,
This quiet port let my toft veffel gain;

Of heavenly rest, this earnest to me lend,
Let my life fleep, and learn to love her end.

I

V.

THE GARDEN.

To J. EVELYN, Efquire.

Never had any other defire so strong and so like to covetoufness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be mafter at laft of a small house 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 ease, 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 said, " Nobilis oti," when he spoke of his own.) But feveral acci* Virg. Georg. iv. 564.

dents

dents of my ill-fortune have disappointed me hitherto, and do still, of that felicity; for though I have made the first and hardest step to it, by abandoning all ambitions and hopes in this world, and by retiring from the noife of all bufinefs and almoft company, yet I ftick ftill in the inn of a hired house and garden, among weeds and rubbish; and without that pleasanteft work of human induftry, 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 arrived at my little Zoar. "O let me escape thither (is it not a little one ?) and my soul shall live.” I do not look back yet; but I have been forced to ftop, and make too many halts. You may wonder, Sir, (for this feems a little too extravagant and pindarical for profe) what I mean by all this preface; it is to let you know, that though I have miffed, like a chemift, my great end, yet I account my affections and endeavours well rewarded by fomething that I have met with by the bye; which is, that they have procured to me fome part in your kindness and efteem; and thereby the honour of having my name fo advantageously recommended to pofterity, by the epiftle you are pleafed to prefix to the moft ufeful book that has been written in that kind *, and which is to laft as long as months and years.

* Mr. Evelyn's "Kalendarium hortenfe;" dedicated to Mr. Cowley-The title explains the propriety of the compliment, that this book was to laft as long as months and years. H.

Among many other arts and excellencies, which you enjoy, I am glad to find this favourite of mine the most predominant; that you choose this for your wife, though you have hundreds of other arts for your concubines; 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 estate; you have taken moft pleasure in it, and bestowed moft charges upon its education: and I doubt not to fee 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 nobody 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 myself 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 bleft 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

And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again doft meet Both pleasures more refin'd and sweet;

The fairest garden in her looks,

And in her mind the wifeft books.

Oh, who would change these soft, yet folid joys,

For empty fhows and fenfelefs noise;

And all which rank ambition breeds,

Which feem fuch beauteous flowers, and are fuch poifonous weeds?

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 first matter 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.

For God, the univerfal architect,

'T had been as easy to erect

A Louvre or Efcurial, or a tower

That might with heaven communication hold,
As Babel vainly thought to do of old:

He wanted not the skill or power;

In the world's fabric those were shown, And the materials were all his own.

But