THE MATRIMONIAL GARDEN. 161 



And first, let me caution adventurers in this garden not 

 to dream of perma?ient happiness ; if you should so dream, 

 experience will soon make you wiser, as such happiness 

 never existed but in the heads of visionaries. If you are 

 desirous that this garden shall yield you all the bliss of which 

 it is capable, you must take with you that excellent flower 

 called Good Humour, which, of all the flowers of nature, is 

 the most delicious and delicate ; do not drop it or lose it, as 

 many do, soon after they enter the garden ; it is a treasure 

 the loss of which nothing can supply. When you get to the 

 end of the first walk, which contains about thirty steps,t com- 

 monly called " The Honey Moon Path," you will find the 

 garden open into a vast variety of views, and it is necessary 

 to caution you to avoid many productions here which are 

 noxious, nauseous, and even fatal in their nature and ten- 

 dency, especially .to the ignorant and unwary. There is a 

 low, small plant, which may be seen in almost every path, 

 called Indifference. Though this is not perceived on enter- 

 ing, you will always know where it grows, by a certain cold- 

 ness in the air which surrounds it. Contrary to the nature 

 of plants in general, this grows by cold and dies by warmth ; 

 whenever you perceive this change in the air, avoid the place 

 as soon as you can. In the same path is often found that 

 baneful flower called Jealousy, which I advise you never to 

 look at, for it has the strange quality of smiting the eye that 

 beholds it with a pain that is seldom or never got rid of. 

 Jealousy is a deadly flower ; it is the aconite of the garden, 

 and has marred the happiness of thousands. 



As you proceed, you will meet with many little crooked 

 paths. I advise you, as a friend, never to go into them ; for 

 although, at the entrance of each, it is written in large 

 letters, I am right, if you do enter, and get to the end of 

 them, you will find the true name to be Perverseness. 

 These crooked paths occasion endless disputes ; and as it 

 is difficult to make the crooked straight, it is better to avoid 

 f Thirty days. 



14* 



