We are here among the vast and noble scenes of Nature; we are there
among the pitiful shifts of policy. We walk here in the light and
open ways of the divine bounty; we grope there in the dark and
confused labyrinths of human malice. Our senses are here feasted
with the clear and genuine taste of their objects, which are all
sophisticated there, and for the most part overwhelmed with their
contraries. Here Pleasure looks, methinks, like a beautiful,
constant, and modest wife; it is there an impudent, fickle, and
painted harlot. Here is harmless and cheap plenty, there guilty and
expenseful luxury.
I shall only instance in one delight more, the most natural and best
natured of all others, a perpetual companion of the husbandman: and
that is, the satisfaction of looking round about him, and seeing
nothing but the effects and improvements of his own art and
diligence; to be always gathering of some fruits of it, and at the
same time to behold others ripening, and others budding; to see all
his fields and gardens covered with the beauteous creatures of his
own industry; and to see, like God, that all his works are good.
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