Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2)Evelyn, John
History
Sylva; Or, A Discourse of Forest Trees. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Evelyn, John
Forests and forestry -- Early works to 1800; Gardening -- Early works to 1800; Trees -- Early works to 1800
Hesperides, gratifie the taste, with the delicious annanas, affecting
all the sensories; whilst the chearful ditties of _canorus_ birds,
recording their innocent _amours_ to the murmurs of the bubling
fountain, delight the ear, and with the charming accents of the fair and
vertuous sex, (preferable to all the admired composure of the most
skilful musitians) join consort in hymns and hallelujahs to the
bountiful and glorious Creator, who has left none of the senses, which
he has not gratify’d at once, with their most agreeable and proper
objects.
But to return to Brompton: ’Tis not to be imagin’d what a surprizing
scene, such a spacious _salone_, tapistried with the natural verdure of
the glittering foliage, present the spectator, and recompenses the toil
of the ingenious planter; when after a little patience, he finds the
slender plants, set but at five or six foot distance, (nor much more in
height, well prun’d and dress’d) ascend to an altitude sufficient to
shade and defend his paradisian treasure without excluding the milder
gleams of the glorious and radiant planet, with his cherishing
influence, and kindly warmth, to all within the inclosure, refreshed
with the cooling and early dew, pregnant with the sweet exhalations
which the indulgent mother and teeming earth sends up, to nourish and
maintain her numerous and tender off-spring.
But after all, let us not dwell here too long, whilst the inferences to
be derived from those tempting and temporary objects, prompt us to raise
our contemplations a little on objects yet more worthy our noblest
speculations, and all our pains and curiosity, representing that happy
state above, namely, the cœlestial paradise: Let us, I say, suspend our
admiration a while, of these terrestrial gayeties, which are of so short
continuance, and raise our thoughts from being too deeply immers’d and
rooted in them, aspiring after those supernal, more lasting and glorious
abodes, namely, a paradise; not like this of ours (with so much pains
and curiosity) made with hands, but eternal in the heavens; where all
the trees are Trees of Life; the flowers all amaranths; all the plants
perennial, ever verdant, ever pregnant; and where those who desire
knowledge, may fully satiate themselves; taste freely of the fruit of
that tree, which cost the first gardiner and posterity so dear; and
where the most voluptuous inclinations to the allurements of the senses,
may take, and eat, and still be innocent; no forbidden fruit; no serpent
to deceive; none to be deceived.
Hail, O hail then, and welcome, you bless’d elyziums, where a new state
of things expects us; where all the pompous and charming delights that
detain us here a while, shall be changed into real and substantial
fruitions, eternal springs, and pleasure intellectual, becoming the
dignity of our nature!
I beg no pardon for the application, but deplore my no better use of it,
and that whilst I am thus upon the wing, I must now descend so soon
again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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