240 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



Ah ! yet doth beauty, like a dial-hand, 

 Steal from his figure, and no pace perceived ! 



What a dead thing is a clock, with its ponderous embowelrnents 

 of lead or brass, its pert or solemn dulness of communication, 

 compared with the simple altar-like structure and silent heart- 

 language of the old dial ! It stood as the garden god of Christian 

 gardens. Why is it almost everywhere banished ? If its business- 

 use be superseded by more elaborate inventions, its moral uses, 

 its beauty, might have pleaded for its continuance. It spoke of 

 moderate labours, of pleasures not protracted after sunset, of 

 temperance, and good hours. It was the primitive clock, the 

 horologe of the first world. Adam could scarce have missed it 

 in Paradise. It was the measure appropriate for sweet plants and 

 flowers to spring by, for the birds to apportion their silver warblings 

 by, for flocks to pasture and be led to fold by. The ' shepherd 

 carved it out quaintly in the sun ' ; and turning philosopher by 

 the very occupation, provided it with mottoes more touching than 

 tombstones. It was a pretty device of the gardener, recorded by 

 Marvell, who, in the days of artificial gardening, made a dial out 

 of herbs and flowers. 



I must quote his verses a little higher up, for they are full, as 

 all his serious poetry was, of a witty delicacy. They will not 

 come in awkwardly, I hope, in a talk of fountains and sun-dials. 



He is speaking of sweet garden scenes : 



What wondrous life is this I lead ! 

 Rich apples drop about my head. 

 The luscious clusters of the vine 

 Upon my mouth do crush their wine. 

 The nectarine and curious peach 

 Into my hands themselves do reach. 

 Stumbling on melons, as I pass, 

 Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass. 

 Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less 

 Withdraws into its happiness. 

 The mind, that ocean, where each kind 

 Does straight its own resemblance find j 

 Yet it creates, transcending these, 

 Far other worlds, and other seas, 



