GARDENS OF FLORENTINE HUMANISTS 
wisely and well she will never fail to satisfy you and 
will always add gift to gift. In spring the villa affords 
endless delights—green leaves, flowers, sweet scents, 
songs of birds—and does her utmost to make you 
glad and joyous. The world smiles on you; there is 
good promise of a rich harvest, you are filled with 
hope, with mirth and gaiety. And then how courteous 
the villa becomes, sending you one fruit after another, 
never leaving the barn empty. In autumn her rewards 
are out of all proportion to your labours; she gives 
you back twelve for one, for a little toil many barrels 
of wine, and for what is old, things new and good. 
She fills the house with fresh and dried grapes, wal¬ 
nuts, figs, pears, almonds, filberts, pomegranates, with 
sweet and luscious apples, and other wholesome fruits. 
Nor does she forget to be liberal in winter, supplying 
you with oil and wood, with vine-tendrils, laurel and 
juniper boughs, to shelter you from snow and wind, 
and kindle a fragrant and cheerful flame on the hearth. 
And if you please to stay with her, the villa will gladden 
you with splendid sunshine and give you fine sport in 
chasing the hare, the stag, and the wild boar. What 
need I say more ? It would be hard to tell all that 
the villa does for the family’s health and comfort. 
And the wise have always held that the villa is the 
refuge of good, just and temperate men, yielding them 
gain together with pleasant amusement. There you 
may enjoy clear, brilliant days and beautiful prospects 
over wooded hills and sunlit plains, and listen to the 
murmuring of fountains and of the running streams 
that flow through the tufted grass. What is still 
better, there you can escape from the noise and tumult 
of the city, the turmoils of the Piazza and the 
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