Sent through the trav'ller's temples! He that finds At his laft gafp; but could not for a world From pools and ditches of the commonwealth, Ambition, av'rice, penury incurr'd By endless riot, vanity, the luft As duly as the swallows disappear, The world of wand'ring knights and fquires to town. The levee fwarms, as if, in golden pomp, Were character'd on ev'ry ftateman's door, "BATTER'D AND BANKRUPT FORTUNES MENDER HERE." Thefe are the charms that fully and eclipfe The charms of nature. 'Tis the cruel gripe That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, The hope of better things, the chance to win, Oh thou, refort and mart of all the earth, Chequer'd with all complexions of mankind, And fpotted with all crim s; in whom I fee Much that I love, and more that I admire, And all that I abhor; thou freckled fair, That pleaseft and yet shock'ft me, I can laugh And I can weep, can hope, and can defpond, Feel wrath and pity, when I think on thee ! Ten righteous would have fav'd a city once, And thou haft many righteous.-Well for theeThat falt preferves thee; more corrupted elfe, And therefore more obnoxious, at this hour Than Sodom in her day had pow'r to be, For whom God heard his Ab'ram plead in vain. ARGUMENT OF THE FOURTH BOOK. The poft comes in.-The news paper is read.-The world contemplated at a diftarce. Address to Winter. The rural amufements of a winter's evening compared with the fashionable ones.Addrefs to evening.-A brown Study.-Fall of Snow in the evening -The waggoner. -A poor family-piece.-The rural thief-Public boufes. The multitude of them cenfured.-The far. mer's daughter: what she was what he is.-The fimplicity of country manners almoft loft.—Caufes of the change --Defertion of the country by the rich.Neglect of magiftrates.-The militia principally in fault. The new recruit and his transformation.Reflection on bodies corporate.-The love of rural objects natural to all, and never to be totally extin guished. THE TASK. BOOK IV. THE WINTER EVENING. HARK! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge, With fpatter'd boots, ftrapp'd waift, and frozen locks; Is to conduct it to the deftin'd inn; And, having dropp'd th' expected bag, pafs on. |