ARGUMENT OF THE SECOND BOOK. Which opens with reflections suggested by the conclusion of the former. Peace among the nations recommended on the ground of their common fellowship in sorrow. Prodigies enumerated. Sicilian earthquakes. Man rendered obnoxious to these calamities by sin. God the agent in them. The philosophy that stops at secondary causes, reproved. Our own late miscarriages accounted for. Satirical notice taken of our trips to Fontainbleau. But the pulpit, not satire, the proper engine of reformation. The Reverend Advertiser of engraved sermons. Petit maitre parson. The good preacher. Picture of a theatrical clerical coxcomb. Story-tellers and jesters in the pulpit reproved. Apostrophe to popular applause. Retailers of ancient philosophy expostulated with. Sum of the whole matter. Effects of sacerdotal mismanagement on the laity. Their folly and extravagance. The mischiefs of profusion. Profusion itself, with all its consequent evils, ascribed, as to its principal cause, to the want of discipline in the Universities. THE TASK. BOOK II. THE TIME-PIECE. OH for a lodge in some vast wilderness 1, Might never reach me more! My ear is pain'd, Of brotherhood is sever'd as the flax That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not colour'd like his own2, and having power Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place, that I might leave my people and go from them.-Jeremiah, ix. 2. * Not remembering that he is (as old Fuller says)" the image of God cut in ebony." S. C.-9. H Make enemies of nations who had else Just estimation prized above all price, 20 25 30 I had much rather be myself the slave 35 And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. Sure there is need of social intercourse, 40 45 Between the nations, in a world that seems 50 55 To preach the general doom3. When were the winds Have kindled beacons in the skies; and the old 3 Alluding to the late calamities at Jamaica. C. * Cry havock, and let slip the dogs of war. 5 August 18, 1783. C. Julius Cæsar, act iii. 69 65 70 6 Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, &c. 2 Kings, v. 26. Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth Shakes, like a thing unfirm? Julius Cæsar. Act i. 7 Alluding to the fog that covered both Europe and Asia during the whole summer of 1783. C. And 'tis but seemly, that where all deserve To what no few have felt, there should be peace, Alas for Sicily! rude fragments now 75 80 While God performs upon the trembling stage How does the earth receive him?-with what signs Of gratulation and delight, her king? 85 Pours she not all her choicest fruits abroad, She quakes at his approach. Her hollow womb The hills move lightly 10 and the mountains smoke, 8 Where cattle pastured late, now scattered lies Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones Milton. Sonnet 18. 90 9 All the merry hearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. The city of confusion is broken down. Isaiah, xxiv. 10 I beheld the mountains, and they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.—Jeremiah, iv. 24. |