Sir William ^Temple 93 



know, the best rules or provisions that can 

 go towards composing the best gardens ; nor is 

 it unlikely that Homer may have drawn this 

 picture after the life of some he had seen in 

 Ionia, the country and usual abode of this 

 divine poet, and, indeed, the region of the 

 most refined pleasure and luxury, as well as 

 invention and wit : for the humor and custom 

 of gardens may have descended earlier into the 

 Lower Asia, from Damascus, Assyria, and other 

 parts of the eastern empires, though they seem 

 to have made late entrance and smaller im- 

 provement in those of Greece and Rome ; at 

 least in no proportion to their other inventions 

 or refinements of pleasure and luxury. 



The long and flourishing peace of the two 

 first empires gave earlier rise and growth to 

 learning and civility, and all the consequences 

 of them, in magnificence and elegancy of 

 building and gardening, whereas Greece and 

 Rome were almost perpetually engaged in 

 quarrels and wars either abroad or at home, 

 and so were busy in actions that were done 

 under the sun, rather than those under the 

 shade. These were the entertainments of the 

 softer nations that fell under the virtue and 

 prowess of the two last empires, which from 

 those conquests brought home mighty in- 

 creases both of riches and luxury, and so 



