7 o THE GARDEN 



of all business and almost company, yet I stick still in 

 the inn of a hired house and garden, among weeds and 

 rubbish ; and without that pleasantest work of human 

 industry, the improvement of something which we call 

 (not very properly, but yet we call) our own. I am 

 gone out from Sodom, but I am not yet arrived at my 

 little Zoar. let me escape thither (is it not a little one ?) 

 and my soul shall live. I do not look back yet ; but I 

 have been forced to stop, and make too many halts. 

 You may wonder, sir (for this seems a little too ex- 

 travagant and pindarical for prose), what I mean by all 

 this preface ; it is to let you know, that though I have 

 missed, like a chemist, my great end, yet I account my 

 affections and endeavours well rewarded by something 

 that I have met with by the bye ; which is, that they 

 have procured to me some part in your kindness and 

 esteem ; and thereby the honour of having my name 

 so advantageously recommended to posterity, by the 

 epistle you are pleased to prefix to the most useful 

 book that has been written in that kind, 1 and which is 

 to last as long as months and years. 



1 t/ie most useful book tliat has been written in that kind] Mr. 



Evelyn's Kalendarium Hortense ; dedicated to Mr. Cowley. 

 The title explains the propriety of the compliment, that this 

 book was to last as long as months and years. 



