And seem to smile at what they need not fear. Th' amomum there with intermingling flow'rs And cherries hangs her twigs. Geranium boasts Her crimson honours, and the spangled beau, Ficoides, glitters bright the winter long.

All plants, of ev'ry leaf, that can endure

The winter's frown, if screen'd from his shrewd bite,
Live there, and prosper. Those Ausonia claims,
Levantine regions these; th' Azores senden.
Their jessamine, her jessamine remote
Caffraia: foreigners from many lands,

They form one social shade, as if conven'd
By magic summons of th' Orphean lyre.
Yet just arrangement, rarely brought to pass
But by a master's hand, disposing well

The

gay

diversities of leaf and flow'r,

Must lend its aid t' illustrate all their charms,

And dress the regular yet various scene.
Plant behind plant aspiring, in the van

The dwarfish, in the rear retir'd, but still

Sublime above the rest, the statelier stand.

So once were rang'd the sons of ancient Rome, A noble show! while Roscius trod the stage;

And so, while Garrick, as renown'd as he,

The sons of Albion; fearing each to lose li
Some note of Nature's music from his lips,
And covetous of Shakespeare's beauty, seen
In ev'ry flash of his far-beaming eye.
Nor taste alone and well-contriv'd display'
Suffice to give the marshall'd ranks the grace
Of their complete effect. Much yet remains
Unsung, and many cares are yet behind,
And more laborious; cares on which depend
Their vigour, injur'd soon, not soon restor❜d.
The soil must be renew'd, which, often wash'd,
Loses its treasure of salubrious salts,

And disappoints the roots; the slender roots
Close interwoven, where they meet the vase,
Must smooth be shorn away; the sapless branch
Must fly before the knife; the wither'd leaf.

Must be detach'd, and where it strews the floor

Swept with a woman's neatness, breeding else. Contagion, and disseminating death.

Discharge but these kind offices, (and who Would spare, that loves them, offices like these?) Well they reward the toil. The sight is pleas'd, The scent regal'd, each odorif'rous leaf,

Each op'ning blossom, freely breathes abroad Its gratitude, and thanks him with its sweets.

So manifold, all pleasing in their kind, All healthful, are th' employs of rural life, Reiterated as the wheel of time

Runs round; still ending, and beginning still. Nor are these all. To deck the shapely knoll, That, softly swell'd and gaily dress'd, appears A flow'ry island, from the dark green lawn Emerging, must be deem'd a labour due

To no mean hand, and asks the touch of taste.

Here also grateful mixture of well-match'd

And sorted hues (each giving each relief,
And by contrasted beauty shining more)

Is needful. Strength may wield the pond'rous spade,

May turn the clod, and wheel the compost home;
But elegance, chief grace the garden shows,
And most attractive, is the fair result

Of thought, the creature of a polish'd mind."
Without it all is gothic as the scene

To which th' insipid citizen resorts

Near yonder heath; where industry mispent,
But proud of his uncouth ill-chosen task,

Has made a heav'n on earth; with suns and moons

Of close-ramm'd stones has charg'd th' encumber'd soil,

And fairly laid the zodiac in the dust.

He, therefore, who would see his flow'rs dispos'd Sightly and in just order, ere he gives

The beds the trusted treasure of their seeds,

Forecasts the future whole; that, when the scene

Shall break into its preconceiv'd display,
Each for itself, and all as with one voice
Conspiring, may attest his bright design.
Nor even then, dismissing as perform'd
His pleasant work, may he suppose it done.
Few self-supported flow'rs endure the wind
Uninjur'd, but expect th' upholding aid
Of the smooth-shaven prop, and, neatly tied,
Are wedded thus, like beauty to old age,
For int'rest sake, the living to the dead.

Some clothe the soil that feeds them, far diffus'd
And lowly creeping, modest and yet fair,
Like virtue, thriving most where little seen:
Some, more aspiring, catch the neighbour shrub
With clasping tendrils, and invest his branch,
Else unadorn'd, with many a gay festoon
And fragrant chaplet, recompensing well

The strength they borrow with the grace they lend.
All hate the rank society of weeds,

Noisome, and ever greedy to exhaust