8 Public Parks. 



which has never been surpassed. — trees of noblest kind, amid which 

 stood the " Tree of Life," 



" High, eininent, blooming ambrosial fruits of vegetable gold ; " 



fresh fountains, watering with many a rill, flowers worthy of 

 Paradise, and 



" Rolling on Orient pearl ; " 



groves whose trees wept odorous gums and balms ; lawns, and 

 palmy hillocks, and flocks grazing the herb ; and 



" Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose ; " 



umbrageous grottos, and caves of cool recess, o'erarched with 

 mantling vine ; murmuring waters falling down the hill-slope, with 

 banks myrtle-crowned ; birds making vocal the woods ; and vernal 

 air breathing the smell of field and grove. Such was deemed the fit 

 residence of our great progenitors before the Fall. 



The Elysium of the ancients was a union of leafy bowers, flowery 

 meads, and murmuring brooks, fanned by a genial air, and lighted 

 by another sun and other stars. 



Mahomet, while creating a voluptuous paradise, has brought in 

 as accessories, groves, fountains, and rivers of bliss ; and Christian 

 congregations do not hesitate to join with fervor in singing that 

 beautiful hymn, 



" Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, 

 Stand dressed in living green." 



These examples show how intimately the forms of external 

 nature are associated, not only with our happiness here, but here- 

 after ; and how deeply they are impressed upon man, whether in a 

 savage or civilized state. 



From the earliest period of history, a love of nature and landscape 

 gardening has been fostered and encouraged in the same ratio as 

 civilization has advanced. The Jews and Egyptians had their gar- 

 dens ; and Nebuchadnezzar, to gratify his wife Amytis, a daughter 

 of the king of Medea, who was home-sick, and longed for the pictur- 

 esque scenery and mountains of her native land, constructed the 

 famous hanging gardens of Babylon. The captive Jews, Phoenicians, 

 Syrians, and Egyptians were engaged for years in building such 

 works ; and, according to Diodorus and Strabo, nothing had been 

 attempted prior to their time to compare, in magnificence and 

 grandeur, with what was then accomplished. Among the ruins of 

 Ninevah, Layard found traces of gardens ; also, a large tree, which, 

 from its surroundings, he inferred had been an object of adoration. 



