And all this mischief does upon them light,
Only, because they know not how, aright,
That great, but secret, happiness to prize,
That's laid up in a little, for the wise:
That is the best and easiest estate,

Which to a man sits close, but not too straight;
"T is like a shoe; it pinches and it burns,
Too narrow; and too large, it overturns.
My dearest friend! stop thy desires at last,
And cheerfully enjoy the wealth thou hast :
And, if me still seeking for more you see,
Chide and reproach, despise 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 COUNTRY LIFE.

Lib. IV. Plantarum.

BLESS'D be the man (and bless'd 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 bestows
All she can ask, when she luxurious grows.
The specious inconveniencies, that wait
Upon a life of business, and of state,

He sees (nor does the sight disturb his rest)
By fools desir'd, by wicked men possess'd.
Thus, thus (and this deserv'd great Virgil's praise)
The old Corycian yeoman pass'd his days;
Thus his wise life Abdolonymus spent:
Th' ambassadors which the great emperor sent
To offer him a crown, with wonder found
The reverend gardener hoeing of his ground;
Unwillingly, and slow, and discontent,

From his lov'd cottage to a throne he went;
And oft he stopp'd, in his triumphant way,
And oft look'd back, and oft was heard to say,
Not without sighs, 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 obscurely then without a name,
Aglaüs, now.consign'd t'eternal fame.

For Gyges, the rich king, wicked and great,
Presum'd, at wise Apollo's Delphick seat
Presum'd, to ask, Oh thou, the whole world's eye,
See'st thou a man that happier is than I?
The god, who scorn'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 such king as he.
And true it was, through the whole earth around
No king of such a name was to be found.
Is some old hero of that name alive,

Who his high race does from the gods derive ?

Is it some mighty general, that has done
Wonders in fight, and god-like honours won ?
Is it some man of endless wealth? said he.
None, none of these. Who can this Aglaüs be?
After long search, and vain inquiries past,
In an obscure Arcadian vale at last
(Th' Arcadian life has always shady been)
Near Sopho's town (which he but once had seen)
This Aglaüs, who monarchs' envy drew,
Whose 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 those foolish gods to mention thee)
So let me act, on such a private stage,
The last dull scenes of my declining age;
After long toils and voyages in vain,
This quiet port let my toss'd vessel gain ;
Of heavenly rest, this earnest to me lend,
Let my life sleep, and learn to love her end.

V.

THE GARDEN.

TO J. EVELYN, ESQ.

I NEVER had any other desire so strong and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master 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 said, shorter and better for me, that I might there

"Studiis florere ignobilis otî * :"

،

(though I could wish that he had rather said, nobilis otî," when he spoke of his own). But several accidents of my ill-fortune have disappointed me

* Virg. Georg. iv. 564.

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 noise of all business, and almost company, yet I stick still in the inn of a hired house and garden, among weeds and rubbish; and without that pleasantest work of human industry, the improvement of something 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 stop, and make too many halts. You may wonder, Sir (for this seems a little too extravagant and pindarical for prose), what I mean by all this preface: it is to let you know, that though I have missed, like a chemist, my great end, yet I account my affections and endeavours well rewarded by something that I have met with by the bye; which is, that they have procured to me some part in your kindness and esteem; and thereby the honour of having my name so advantageously recommended to posterity, by the epistle you are pleased to prefix to the most useful book that has been written in that kind*, and which is to last 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 last as long as months and years. HURD.