London ingulphs them all! The shark is there,
And the shark’s prey; the spendthrift, and the leech
That fucks him. There the fycophant, and he
Who, with bare-headed and obsequious bows,
Begs a warm office, doom'd to a cold jail
And groat per diem, if his patron frown.
The levee swarms, as if, in golden pomp,
Were character'd on ev'ry statesman's door,
“Batter’D AND BANKRUPT FORTUNES MENDED HERE.",
These are the charms that fully and eclipse
The charms of nature. 'Tis the cruel gripe.
That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts,
The hope of better things, the chance to win,
The wish to shine, the thirst to be amus’d,
That at the sound of winter's hoary wing
Unpeople all our counties of such herds
Of Aute'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, loose
And wanton vagrants, as make London, vast
And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

Oh thou, resort and mart of all the earth, Chequer'd with all complexions of mankind, And spotted with all crimes; in whom I see Much that I love, and more that I admire, And all that I abhor; thou freckled fair, That pleasest and yet shock’lt me; I can laugh And I can weep, can hope, and can despond, Feel wrath and pity, when I think on thee ! Ten righteous would have sav'd a city once, And thou hast many righteous.-Well for theeThat falt preserves thee ; more corrupted else, And therefore more obnoxious, at this hour Than Sodom in her day had pow'r to be, For whom God heard his Abr’ain plead in vain.

ARGUMENT OF THE FOURTH BOOK,

The post comes in.—The news-paper is read. The world

THE

TA S K.

BOOK IV.

THE WINTER EVENING.

Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o’er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needful length Bestrides the wintry food, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright; He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks, News from all nations lumb’ring at his back. True to his charge, the close-pack'd load behind, Yet careless what he brings, his one concern Is to conduct it to the destin'd inn;