It is great pity the haste which Virgil seems 

 here to have been in should have hindered him 

 from entering farther into the account or in- 

 structions of gardening, which he said he could 

 have given, and which he seems to have so 

 much esteemed and loved, by that admirable 

 picture of this old man's felicity, which he 

 draws like so great a master, with one stroke of 

 a pencil in those four words : 



Regum csquabat opes animis. 



That in the midst of these small possessions,, 

 upon a few acres of barren ground, yet he 

 equalled all the wealth and opulence of kings, 

 in the ease, content, and freedom of his mind. 



I am not satisfied with the common accepta- 

 tion of the mala aurea for oranges ; nor do I find 

 any passage in the authors of that age, which 

 gives me the opinion, that these were otherwise 

 known to the . Romans than as fruits of the 

 eastern climates. I should take their mala aurea 

 to be rather some kind of apples, so called from 

 the golden color, as some are amongst us ; for 

 otherwise, the orange-tree is too noble in the 

 beauty, taste, and smell of its fruit ; in the per- 

 fume and virtue of its flowers ; in the perpetual 

 verdure of its leaves, and in the excellent uses 

 of all these, both for pleasure and health ; not to 

 have deserved any particular mention in the 



