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And abrogate, as roundly as fhe may,
The total ordinance and will of God;
Advancing Fashion to the post of Truth,
And centring all authority in modes
And customs of her own, till fabbath rites
Have dwindled into unrefpected forms,
And knees and haffocks are well nigh divorced.

God made the country, and man made the town. What wonder then that health and virtue, gifts That can alone make sweet the bitter draught That life holds out to all, should most abound And least be threaten'd in the fields and groves? Poffefs ye, therefore, ye who, borne about In chariots and fedans, know no fatigue But that of idleness, and tafte no scenes But fuch as art contrives, poffefs ye ftill Your element; there only ye can shine; There only minds like yours can do no harm. Our groves were planted to confole at noon The penfive wanderer in their shades. At eve The moonbeam, fliding softly in between The fleeping leaves, is all the light they wish, Birds warbling all the mufic. We can spare The splendour of your lamps; they but eclipse Our fofter fatellite. Your fongs confound Our more harmonious notes: the thrush departs Scared, and the offended nightingale is mute. There is a public mifchief in your mirth; It plagues your country. Folly such as yours, Graced with a fword, and worthier of a fan, Has made, which enemies could ne'er have done, Our arch of empire, steadfast but for A mutilated structure, foon to fall.

you,

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THE TASK.

BOOK II. THE TIME-PIECE.

ARGUMENT.

Reflections fuggefted by the conclusion of the former book. Peace among the nations recommended on the ground of their common fellowship in forrow. Prodigies enumerated. Sicilian earthquakes. Man rendered obnoxious to thefe calamities by fin. God the agent in them. The philofophy that flops at fecondary causes reproved. Our own late mifcarriages accounted for. Satirical notice taken of our trips to Fontainbleau. But the pulpit, not fatire, the proper engine of reformation. The Reverend Advertiser of engraved ferPetit-maître parfon. The good preacher. Picture of a theatrical clerical coxcomb. Story-tellers and jefters in the pulpit reproved. Apostrophe to popular applaufe. Retailers of ancient philofophy expoftulated with. Sum of the whole matter. Effects of facerdotal mismanagement on the laity. Their folly and extravagance. The mifchiefs of profufion. Profufion itself, with all its confequent evils, afcribed, as to its principal cause, to the want of difcipline in the Universities.

mons.

THE TASK.

BOOK II. THE TIME-PIECE.

H for a lodge in fome vaft wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppreffion and deceit,

Of unsuccessful or fuccefsful war,

Might never reach me more. My ear is pain'd,
My foul is fick, with every day's report

Of wrong and outrage with which earth is fill'd.
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart,
It does not feel for man; the natural bond
Of brotherhood is fever'd as the flax
That falls afunder at the touch of fire.

He finds his fellow guilty of a skin

prey.

Not colour'd like his own; and having power
To enforce the wrong, for fuch a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful
Lands interfected by a narrow frith
Abhor each other. Mountains interpofed
Make enemies of nations, who had elfe
Like kindred drops been mingled into one.
Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;
And, worse than all, and most to be deplored,
As human nature's broadeft, fouleft blot,
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat

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