( xxiij )

The GARDEN.

To J. Evelyn, Esquire.

NEVER had any other Desire lo strong, and so like toCovetousness, as that one which I have had always, that Imight be Master at last of a small House and large Garden,with very moderate Conveniencies joined to them, andthere dedicate the Remainder of my Life only to the Cul-ture of them, and Study of Nature,

And there (with no 'Design beyond my Wall) whole and entire to lie.

In no unaEtive Ease, and no inglorious Boverty ;

Or, as Virgil has said, shorter and better for me, that I might thereStudiis florere ignobilis oti ( though I could wish that he had rathersaid, Nobilis otii , when he spoke of his own: ) But several Accidentsof my ill Fortune have disappointed me hitherto, and do still of thatFelicity; for though I have made the first and hardest Step to it, by aban-doning all Ambitions and Hopes in this World, and by retiring from theNoise of all Business, and almost Company; yet I stick still in the Inn ofa hired House and Garden, among Weeds and Rubbish ; and withoutthat pleasantest Work of human Industry, the Improvement of somethingwhich we call (not very properly, but yet we call) our own. I amgone out from Sodom , but I am not yet arrived at my little Zoar : Olet 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 toomany Halts. You may wonder, Sir, (for this seems a little too extrava-gant and pindarical for Trose) what I mean by all this ‘Preface ; it is tolet you know, that though 1 have miss’d, like a Chymist, my great End,yet 1 account my Affections and Endeavours well rewarded by somethingthat I have met with by the bye; which is, that they have procured tome some Part in your Rind ness and Esteem; and thereby the Honourof having my Name so advantagiously recommended to Posterity, bythe Epistle you are pleased to prefix to the most useful Book that has beenwritten in that Kind,, and which is to last as long as Months and Years.

Among many other Arts and Excellencies which you enjoy, I amglad to find this Favourite of mine the most predominant, that you choosethis for your W ife, though you have hundreds of other Arts for your Con-cubines ; though you know them, and beget Sons upon them all (towhich you are rich enough to allow great Legacies) yet the Hsue ofthis seems to be design’d by you to the Main of the Estate; you havetaken most Pleasure in it, and bestow’d most Charges upon its Educa-tion ; and I doubt not to fee that Book, which you are pleased to pro-mise to the World, and of which you have given us a large Earnest inyour Kalendar, as accomplish^! as any Thing can be expected from ar^extraordinary Application , and no ordinary Expences, and a long Ex-perience. I know no Body that pofTelTes more private Happiness than% you