Page:Essays - Abraham Cowley (1886).djvu/108

 garden, and yet no man who makes his happiness more public by a free communication of the art and knowledge of it to others. All that I myself am able yet to do is only to recommend to mankind the search of that felicity which you instruct them how to find and to enjoy.

Happy art thou whom God does bless With the full choice of thine own happiness;
 * And happier yet, because thou'rt blessed
 * With prudence how to choose the best.

In books and gardens thou hast placed 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 refined and sweet:
 * The fairest garden in her looks,
 * And in her mind the wisest books.

Oh! who would change these soft, yet solid joys,