l part thereof was empty
spaces, with herbs and flowers in pots. I think we little understand the
pensile gardens of Semiramis, which made one of the wonders of it
[Babylon], wherein probably the structure exceeded the plants contained
in them. The excellency thereof was probably in the trees, and if the
descension of the roots be equal to the height of trees, it was not
[absurd] of Strebaeus to think the pillars were hollow that the roots
might shoot into them."--_Sir Thomas Browne.--Bohn's Edition of Sir
Thomas Browne's Works, vol. 2, page_ 498.

[012] The house and garden before Pope died were large enough for their
owner. He was more than satisfied with them. "As Pope advanced in
years," says Roscoe, "his love of gardening, and his attention to the
various occupations to which it leads, seem to have increased also. This
predilection was not confined to the ornamental part of this delightful
pursuit, in which he has given undoubted proofs of his proficiency, but
extended to the useful as well as the agreeable, as appears from several
passages in his poems; but he has entered more particularly into this
subject in a letter to Swift (March 25, 1736); "I wish you had any
motive to see this kingdom. I could keep you: for I am rich, that is,
have more than I want, I can afford room to yourself and two servants. I
have indeed room enough; nothing but myself at home. The kind and hearty
housewife is dead! The agreeable and instructive neighbour is gone! Yet
my house is enlarged, and the gardens extend and flourish, as knowing
nothing of the guests they have lost. I have more fruit trees and
kitchen garden than you have any thought of; and, I have good melons and
apples of my own growth. I am as much a better gardener, as I am a worse
poet, than when you saw me; but gardening is near akin to philosophy,
for Tully says, _Agricultura proxima sapientiae_. For God's sake, why
should not you, (that are a step higher than a philosopher, a divine,
yet have too much grace and wit than to be a bishop) even give all you
have to the poor of Ireland (for whom you have already done every thing
else,) so quit the place, and live and die with me? And let _tales anima
concordes_ be our motto and our epitaph."

[013] The leaves of the willow, though green above, are hoar below.
Shakespeare's knowledge of the fact is alluded to by Hazlitt as one of
the numberless evidences of the poet's minute observation of external
nature.

[014] See Mr.