THE PRAISE OF SECT. I* 



O friendly to the best pursuits of man, 

 Friendly to thought, to virtue and to peace, 

 Domestic life in rural leisure pass'd. 



Scenes formed for contemplation, and to nurse 

 The growing seeds of wisdom ; that suggest, 

 By every pleasing image they present, 

 Reflections such as meliorate the heart, 

 Compose the passions, and exalt the mind. 



Oh ! blest seclusion from a jarring world, 

 Which he, thus occupied, enjoys ! Retreat 

 Cannot indeed to guilty man restore 

 Lost innocence, or cancel follies past, 

 But it has peace, and much secures the mind 

 From all assaults of evil, proving still 

 A faithful barrier, net o'erleap'd with ease. 

 By vicious custom raging uncontroul'd 

 Abroad, and desolating public life T 



The morning finds the self-sequester'd man, 

 Fresh for his task, intend what task he may. 

 If the garden with its many cares, 

 All well repaid, demand him, he attends 

 The welcome call. 



Had I the choice of sublunary good, 

 What could I wish, that I possess not here ? 



Sir William Temple commended the employment 

 care of a garden as his settled choice, saying, 

 For my own part, as the country life, and this part 

 of it more particularly, where the inclination of my 

 youth itself, so they are the pleasures of my age. 

 And this great man thought it worthy of remark, 

 what delight the wise and great king Solomon must 

 have had in the study and cultivation of plants as 

 set forth in Sacred Writ. 



Le Pluche justly asserts, Of all the employ- 

 ments in life, none is more simple, natural, and en- 

 tertaining, than the cultivation of plants. 



Virgil of old, describes the happiness of a culti- 

 vator pf the ground in gardening and planting, as 



