entire to lie,
In no unactive Ease, and no unglorious Poverty;

Or as _Virgil_ has said, shorter and better for me, that I might there
_Studiis florere ignobilis oti_ (though I could wish that he had rather
said, _Nobilis otii_, when he spoke of his own:) But several accidents
of my ill Fortune have disappointed me hitherto, and do still of that
Felicity; for though I have made the first and hardest step to it, by
abandoning all Ambitions and Hopes in this World, and by retiring from
the noise of all Business and almost Company; yet I stick still in the
Inn of a hired House and Garden, among Weeds and Rubbish; and without
that pleasantest Work of Human Industry, the Improvement of something
which we call (not very properly, but yet we call) our own. I am gone
out from _Sodom_, but I am not yet arrived at my little _Zoar_: _O let
me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my Soul shall live._ I
do not look back yet: but I have been forced to stop, and make too many
halts. You may wonder, Sir, (for this seems a little too extravagant and
Pindarical for _Prose_) what I mean by all this Preface; it is to let
you know, That though I have mist, like a Chymist, my great End, yet I
account my Affections and Endeavours well rewarded by something that I
have met with by the bye; which is, that they have procur'd to me some
part in your Kindness and esteem; and thereby the honour of having my
Name so advantagiously recommended to Posterity, by the _Epistle_ you
are pleased to prefix to the _most useful Book_ that has been written in
that kind, and which is to last as long as Months and Years.

Among many other _Arts_ and _Excellencies_ which you enjoy, I am glad to
find this Favourite of mine the most predominant, That you choose this
for your Wife, though you have hundreds of other Arts for your
Concubines; though you know them, and beget Sons upon them all, (to
which you are rich enough to allow great Legacies) yet the issue of this
seems to be design'd by you to the main of the Estate; you have taken
most pleasure in it, and bestow'd most Charges upon its Education; and I
doubt not to see that Book, which you are pleased to promise to the
World, and of which you have given us a large earnest in your Calendar,
as accomplish'd, as any thing can be expected from an _Extraordinary
Application_, and no ordinary Expences, and a long Experience. I know no
body that possesses more private Happiness than you do in your Garden