THE GARDEN.

XXV

IV.

O blessed Shades! O gentle cool Retreat

From all th' immoderate Heat /

In which the frantick World does burn and sweat;

This does the Lion-Star, Ambition’s Rage,

This Avarice, the Dog-Star’s Thirst asswage;

Every where else their fatal Power we see,

They make and rule Man's wretched Destiny:

They neither set nor disappear,

But tyrannize o’er all the Year;

Whilst we ne’er feel their Flame or Influence here.

The Birds that dance from Bough to Bough,

And sing Above in every Tree,

Are not from Fears and Cares more free,

Than we who lie, or walk Below,

And should by Right be Singers too.

What Prince’s Choir of Musick can excel

That which within this Shade does dwell ?

To which we nothing pay or give,

They like all other Poets live,

Without Reward pr Thanks for their obliging Pains j’Tis well if they become not Prey :

The whistling Winds add their less artful Strains,

And a grave Base the murmuring Fountains play ;

Nature does all*this Harmony bestow,

But to our Plants, Arts Musick too,

The Pipe, Theorbo, and Guitar we owe;

The Lute itself, which once was green and mute :

When Orpheus struck th’ inspired Lute,

The Trees danc’d round, and understoodBy Sympathy the Voice of Wood.

t

V. -

These are the Spells that to kind Sleep invite,

And nothing does within Resistance make,

Which yet we moderately take:

Who wou’d not choose to be awake,

While he’s encompass’d round with such Delight,

To th’ Ear, the Nose, the Touch, the Taste, and Sight?

When Venus wou’d her dear Afianius keepA Pris’ner in the downy Bands of Sleep,

She od’rous Herbs and Flowers beneath him spreadAs the most soft and sweetest Bed;

Not her own Lap would more have charm’d his Head.

Who, that has Reason, and his Smell,

Would not ’mong Roses and Jasmin dwell,

Rather than all his Spirits choakWith Exhalations of Dirt and Smoak,

And all th’ Uncleannels which does drownIn pestilential Clouds a pop’lous Town ?

The Earth itself breathes better Perfumes here,

Than all the Female Men or Women there,

Not without Cause about them bear. ’ ;

g VI. When