DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50017#0149
THE GARDEN
To J. Evelyn, Esq.
NEVER had any other desire so strong, and so
like to covetousness, as that one which I have had
always, that I might be master at last of a small house
and large garden, with very moderate conveniences
joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of
my life only to the culture of them and study of nature,
And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire-
to lie,
In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.
Or, as Virgil has said, shorter and better for me, that
I might there
Studiis florere ignobilis 1 oti :
(though I could wish that he had rather said, “ nobilis
otii,” when he spoke of his own). But several acci-
dents of my ill fortune have disappointed me hitherto,
and do still, of that felicity; for though I have made the
first and hardest step to it, by abandoning all ambitions
and hopes in this world, and by retiring from the noise
. 1 T^irg. G„ iv. 564.
To J. Evelyn, Esq.
NEVER had any other desire so strong, and so
like to covetousness, as that one which I have had
always, that I might be master at last of a small house
and large garden, with very moderate conveniences
joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of
my life only to the culture of them and study of nature,
And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire-
to lie,
In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty.
Or, as Virgil has said, shorter and better for me, that
I might there
Studiis florere ignobilis 1 oti :
(though I could wish that he had rather said, “ nobilis
otii,” when he spoke of his own). But several acci-
dents of my ill fortune have disappointed me hitherto,
and do still, of that felicity; for though I have made the
first and hardest step to it, by abandoning all ambitions
and hopes in this world, and by retiring from the noise
. 1 T^irg. G„ iv. 564.