1804. ] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
i ki difcriminate and difplay the excel- 
lencies of nature, feems the charac- 
teviltic property of tafle. Fancy delights 
to contemplate the fcenes exhibit-d with 
tafte in the regions of poefy. Who 
dwells not with rapture in the gardens_ 
which have been celebrated by the Mufe 
of Homer, of Taffo, and Milton? Who 
loves not to ramble with Eve through the 
flowery recefles of Pavadife, regaled with 
a ‘‘wildernefs of {weets;°’ or melts not 
with fympathy, when fhe pathetically ex- 
claims— 
** Muft I thus leave thee, Paradife? Thus 
leave 
‘¢ Thee, native foil; thefe happy walks and 
fhades, 
‘* Fit haunt of Gods?” 
Yet the admonition of the angel to 
Adam is exhilarating, as it is founded on 
the fuperiority, in extent and duration, of 
intellectual and moral to local and cor- 
poreal enjoyments, 
‘¢ Only add 
‘© Deeds to thy knowledge anfwerable ; add 
faith ; 
‘© Add virtue, patience, temperance; add 
love, 
6 By name to come call’d charity, the foul 
s¢ Of all the reft: then wilt thou not be 
loath 
«« To leave this Paradife ; but fhalt poflizfs 
‘© A Paradife within thee, happier far.”” 
Paradife Loft, lat book. 
Nay, in mere local refpects, the expul- 
fion from Eden was not altogether irre- 
parable, except in the diffolution of the 
tie of local attachment, as is not unhap- 
pily conceived in the following Italian 
quotation :-—— 
‘6 Un giardino é un luffo. [I fuoi frutti 
fono fuperiori alla fpontanea produzione della 
terra. IJ] coltivarla 6 la forte naturale dell’ 
huomo, Cid é utile alla fuafalute, alla forza, 
ed alla felicita) Adamo fu fcacciato dall’ 
Eden; ma nel deferto c’era molto terreno per 
fare un’ altro Paradifo. La mano dell’ induf- 
tria fa fiorire il deferto come la rofa.. N’ei 
primi tempi, fecondo Mofeé, ci furono dei 
campi di-paftura, pelgli armentied 1 greggi 
dei patriarchi. Quale fu dungue lo fvantag- 
gio della maledizione di f{cacciare Adamo dal 
giavrdino a’Eden? Egli abbondava negli altri 
giardini, di bofchi, e di pergole.’? 
«© Compared with the fruitlefs fand, a 
garden is a luxury ; and its produce gives 
it a pride and beauty fuperior to the {pon- 
taneous offspring of uncultivated nature. 
In the cultivation of a garden, man is in 
his original {phere ; and derives, from 
MonTuity Mac. No, 120. 
On Gardens—Word Ana/ftafis. 
193 
his occupation, both health and happi- 
nefs. Adam was banifhed from Eden, in- 
deed ; but though defert, ‘the world was 
all before him, where to choofe his place 
of reft, and Providence his guide,’ to form 
other gardens and groves as fair and 
happy. His defcendants, the patriarchs, 
had fields and flocks,-and herds and paf- 
tures. Where lay the evil of the curfe? 
Unlefs labour be an evil, and ufefulnefs a 
malady. Surely the evil lay in the for- 
feiture of the divine favour, which might 
be recovered by reformation; while un- 
der the hand of induftry, the mighty ma- 
gician, the wildernefs fprings up, and 
bloffoms like the rofe.”” 
Allow me fo add a few words relative 
to the term Avaclaatic, in confequence of 
an inquiry in your admired Magazine. 
In the Septuagint, it occurs in Zeph. 3 ce 
8 v. and in Sam. 3c. 62 v.3 alfo, in 2 
Mac. 7c. 14 v.—12C. 48 v.; and,ina 
parenthefis, the next verfe alludes to a 
cuftom obferved in the Eaft, of praying 
for the dead. (‘¢ For if he had not hoped, 
that they that were flain fhould have rifen 
again, it had been fuperfluous and vain to 
pray for the dead.””) The ftyle of this 
verfe reminds us of the apoftle’s allufon 
in 1 Cor. 15 c. 29 v. to baptizing for 
the dead. ‘* If the dead rife not at all, 
why are they then baptized for the dead ?”” 
The Greek corre(pends in the Old Tefta- 
ment to the Hebrew (my), fo rife or ftand 
up. Thefe facred Chronicles of the Jews 
remarkably coincide in manner, and fome- 
times in matter or fentiment, with the 
‘© Tale of Troy divine.’ Homer was 
the poet and the oracle of the Greeks. 
The annals of the times of antiquity were 
recorded in verfe. The ancient and even 
the modern inhabitants of Greece are dif- 
tinguifhed by their zeal for Homer, whofe 
traditions conftituted their theological, or 
mythologic creed. Tales from the lips 
of the wife or the lovely, efpecially from 
thofe of parents, acquire familiarity and 
credibility with the repetition of years. 
This tradition is confecrated to eternity 
in the full-flowing numbers of the Ho- 
meric mufe. The verb avornpys occurs in 
the laft book of the Iliad: firft at verfe 
ss1, the clofe of the fpeech of Achilles to 
Priam, ‘* whofe grief was unavailing to 
raife up, or reinflate his darling Hector ;” 
and next it occurs at verfe 756, expreflive 
of the inefficacy of Achilles’s infults to 
the body of Heétor, as means to r-inftate 
or raife up his deare& Patroclus. Impof- 
fible! Yet Achilles is faid to believe, 
that he was revifited by the fhade of his 
deceafed friend. The dead bodies of Pa- 
2D troclus 
