INTRODUCTION. 13 



abode of it's beauty. The Greeks devoted 

 their terrestrial groves, as well as celestial gar- 

 dens, to the gods ; but the Mahometans re- 

 serve their flowery lawns and umbrageous 

 bowers for scenes of future bliss to mortal 

 believers. We, however, more prudent, should 

 wish to collect all such blessings, which boun- 

 teous Nature has scattered over the globe, and 

 in this present life form a modern garden, 

 worthy of the Hesperides, and deserving of, 

 though not requiring, a dragon to guard it. 



* e Much I love 



To see the fair one bind the straggling pink, 

 Cheer the sweet rose, the lupin, and the stock, 

 And lend a staff to the still gadding pea. 

 Ye fair, it well becomes you. Better thus 

 Cheat time away than at the crowded rout, 

 Rustling in silk, in a small room close pent, 

 And heated e'en to fusion ; made to breathe 

 A rank, contagious air, and fret at whist, 

 Or sit aside to sneer and whisper scandal. " 



Village Curate. 



Some of the pleasure gardens of antiquity 

 were created for, and devoted to, the pleasure 

 of the softer sex. Solomon has celebrated 

 those of Jerusalem in song, and the extraor- 

 dinary gardens of Babylon appear to have 

 been formed by Nebuchadnezzar for his 

 Median queen, who, we are told, could not 

 become reconciled to the flat and naked ap- 

 pearance of the province of Babylon ; but 



