| 42 | B U C | |
" seven a clock, from a very large bed-
" chamber (entirely quiet, high, and
" free from the early sun) to walk in
" the garden; or, if rainy, in a saloon
" filled with pictures, some good, but
" none disagreeable: there also, in a
" row above them, I have so many por-
" traits of famous persons in several
" kinds, as are enough to excite ambi-
" tion in any man less lazy, or less at
" ease, than myself.
" Instead of a littel closet (according
" to the unwholesome custom of most
" people) I chuse this spacious room for
" all my small affairs, reading books or
" writing letters; where I am never in
" the least tired, by the help of stretch-
" ing my legs sometimes in so large a
" room, and of looking into the plea-
" santest park in the world just under-
" neath it.
" Visits, after a certain hour, are not
" to be avoided; some of which I own
" to be a little fatiguing (tho' thanks to
" the town's laziness, they come pretty
" late) if the garden was not so near, as
" to give a seasonable refreshment be-
" tween those ceremonious interrup-
" ions. And I am more sorry than
" my coachman himself, if I am forc-
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| B U C | 43 |
" ed to go abroad any part of the morn-
" ing. For though my garden is such,
" as by not pretending to rarities or cu-
" riosities, has nothing in it to inveagle
" ones thoughts; yet by the advantage of
" situation and prospect, it is able to
" suggest the noblest that can be; in
" presenting at once to view a vast town,
" a palace, and a magnificent cathedral.
" I confess the last, with all its splendor,
" has less share in exciting my devotion,
" than the most common shrub in my
" garden; for though I am apt to be
" sincerely devout in any sort of religious
" assemblies, from the very best (that
" of our own church) even to those of
" Jews, Turks, and Indians: yet the
" works of nature appear to me the bet-
" ter sort of sermons; and every flower
" contains in it the most edifying rheto-
" rick, to fill us with admiration of its
" omnipotent Creator. After I have din-
" ed (either agreeably with friends, or at
" worst with better company than your
" country neighbours) I drive away to a
" place of air and exercise; which some
" constitutions are in absolute need of: a-
" gitation of the body and diversion of the
" mind, being a composition of health
" above all the skill of Hippocrates.
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