246 LOVE OF GARDENS. 



My garden takes up half my daily care, 

 And my field asks the minutes I can spare. 



HARTE. 



ADDISON remarked, that he considered the pleasure 

 we take in a garden, as one of the most innocent 

 delights in human life. Evelyn, also, said that 

 the happiness of a person fond of his garden was 

 preferable to what was founded on all other enjoy- 

 ments. Cowley evidently was of the same opinion, 

 for he exclaims 



Blest be the man (and blest he is) whome'er 

 Plac'd far out of the roads of hope and 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 



Milton, also, described the delights of a garden in 

 the most eloquent language ; and although he 

 was unable to see what he so beautifully pour- 

 trayed, yet his intellectual eye, his fine imagina- 

 tion, and his correct taste, enabled him not only to 

 reject factitious ornaments, and artificial conceits, 

 but to give the following beautiful description of 

 a garden, made by the hand of Nature herself 



