DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50017#0154
72
THE GARDEN
Happy art thou, whom God does bless
With the full choice of thine own happiness ;
And happier yet, because thou ’rt blest
With prudence, how to choose the best;
In books and gardens thou hast plac’d aright
(Things, which thou well dost understand ;
And both dost make with thy laborious hand)
Thy noble, innocent delight :
And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again dost meet
Both pleasures more refin’d and sweet ;
The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.
Oh, who would change these soft, yet solid joys,
For empty shows, and senseless noise !
And all which rank ambition breeds,
Which seem such beauteous flowers, and are such
poisonous weeds ?
ii
When God did man to His own likeness make,
As much as clay, though of the purest kind,
By the great potter’s art refin’d,
Could the divine impression take,
THE GARDEN
Happy art thou, whom God does bless
With the full choice of thine own happiness ;
And happier yet, because thou ’rt blest
With prudence, how to choose the best;
In books and gardens thou hast plac’d aright
(Things, which thou well dost understand ;
And both dost make with thy laborious hand)
Thy noble, innocent delight :
And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again dost meet
Both pleasures more refin’d and sweet ;
The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.
Oh, who would change these soft, yet solid joys,
For empty shows, and senseless noise !
And all which rank ambition breeds,
Which seem such beauteous flowers, and are such
poisonous weeds ?
ii
When God did man to His own likeness make,
As much as clay, though of the purest kind,
By the great potter’s art refin’d,
Could the divine impression take,