84 S Y L V A BOOK 1 



patience, he finds the slender plants, set but at five or 

 six foot distance, (nor much more in height, well 

 prun'd and dress'd) ascend to an altitude sufficient to 

 shade and defend his paradisian treasure without 

 excluding the milder gleams of the glorious and 

 radiant planet, with his cherishing influence, and 

 kindly warmth, to all within the inclosure, refreshed 

 with the cooling and early dew, pregnant with the 

 sweet exhalations which the indulgent mother and 

 teeming earth sends up, to nourish and maintain her 

 numerous and tender ofF-spring. 



But after all, let us not dwell here too long, whilst 

 the inferences to be derived from those tempting and 

 temporary objects, prompt us to raise our contempla- 

 tions a little on objects yet more worthy our noblest 

 speculations, and all our pains and curiosity, repre- 

 senting that happy state above, namely, the coelestial 

 paradise : Let us, I say, suspend our admiration a 

 while, of these terrestrial gayeties, which are of so 

 short continuance, and raise our thoughts from being 

 too deeply immers'd and rooted in them, aspiring 

 after those supernal, more lasting and glorious abodes, 

 namely, a paradise ; not like this of ours (with so 

 much pains and curiosity) made with hands, but 

 eternal in the heavens ; where all the trees are Trees 

 of Life ; the flowers all amaranths ; all the plants 

 perennial, ever verdant, ever pregnant ; and where 

 those who desire knowledge, may fully satiate them- 

 selves ; taste freely of the fruit of that tree, which 

 cost the first gardiner and posterity so dear ; and 

 where the most voluptuous inclinations to the allure- 

 ments of the senses, may take, and eat, and still be 

 innocent ; no forbidden fruit ; no serpent to deceive ; 

 none to be deceived, 



