Where nothing feeds it. Neither business, crowds, Whatever else they smother of true worth In human bosoms, quench it or abate. The villas with which London stands begirt A garden in which nothing thrives, has charms 745 750 755 760 The Frenchman's darling 29? are they not all proofs That man, immured in cities, still retains His inborn inextinguishable thirst Of rural scenes, compensating his loss By supplemental shifts, the best he may? The most unfurnished with the means of life, And they that never pass their brick-wall bounds To range the fields and treat their lungs with air, 29 Mignonette. 766 770 And water'd duly. There the pitcher stands Hail, therefore, patroness of health and ease I shall not add myself to such a chace, Some must be great. Great offices will have The virtue, temper, understanding, taste, 775 780 785 790 That lifts him into life, and lets him fall Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill. To the deliverer of an injured land He gives a tongue to enlarge upon, an heart 795 To feel, and courage to redress her wrongs; To artists ingenuity and skill; To me an unambitious mind, content In the low vale of life, that early felt A wish for ease and leisure, and ere long 800 Found here that leisure and that ease I wish'd. ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH BOOK. A frosty morning. The foddering of cattle. The woodman and his dog. The poultry. Whimsical effects of frost at a waterfall. The Empress of Russia's palace of ice. Amusements of monarchs. War one of them. Wars, whence. And whence monarchy. The evils of it. English and French loyalty contrasted. The Bastile, and a prisoner there. Liberty the chief recommendation of this country. Modern patriotism questionable, and why. The perishable nature of the best human institutions. Spiritual liberty not perishable. The slavish state of man by nature. Deliver him, Deist, if you Grace must do it. The respective merits of patriots and martyrs stated. Their different treatment. Happy freedom of the man whom grace makes free. His relish of the works of God. Address to the Creator. can. THE TASK. BOOK V. THE WINTER MORNING WALK. 'Tis morning; and the sun with ruddy orb Seen through the leafless wood. His slanting ray Transformed to a lean shank. The shapeless pair The glow-worm shews the matin to be near, 5 10 15 20 |