3 o THE GARDENS OF EPICURUS 



farther into the account or instructions 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 asquabat 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 acceptation 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 colour, as some 

 are amongst us ; for otherwise, the orange-tree is too 

 noble in the beauty, taste and smell of its fruit ; in the 

 perfume 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 writings of an 





