And slumbering oscitancy mars the brood? All are not such. I had a brother oncePeace to the memory of a man of worth, A man of letters, and of manners too! Of manners sweet as virtue always wears, When gay good-nature dresses her in smiles. He graced a college*, in which order yet Was sacred; and was honoured, loved, and wept, By more than one, themselves conspicuous there. Some minds are tempered happily, and mixt With such ingredients of good sense, and taste Of what is excellent in man, they thirst With such a zeal to be what they approve, That no restraint can circumscribe them more Than they themselves by choice, for wisdom's sake; Nor can example hurt them: what they see Of vice in others but enhancing more The charms of virtue in their just esteem. If such escape contagion, and emerge Pure from so foul a pool to shine abroad, * Ben'et Coll. Cambridge. And give the world their talents and themselves, Small thanks to those whose negligence or sloth Exposed their inexperience to the snare, And left them to an undirected choice. See then the quiver broken and decayed, What wonder if, discharged into the world, Swarms in all quarters: meets the eye, the ear, And waved his rod divine, a race obscene, THE TASK. BOOK III. THE GARDEN. The Argument. Self-recollection and reproof.-Address to domestic happiness. Some account of myself. The vanity of many of their pursuits who are reputed wise.Justification of my censures.-Divine illumination necessary to the most expert philosopher.-The question, What is truth? answered by other questions.-Domestic happiness addressed again.-Few lovers of the country.-My tame hare.-Occupations of a retired gentleman in his garden.-Pruning.-Framing.-Greenhouse.-Sowing of flower. seeds. The country preferable to the town even in the winter.-Reasons why it is deserted at that season. Ruinous effects of gaming and of expensive improvement.-Book concludes with an apostrophe to the metropolis. As one, who long in thickets and in brakes And sore discomfited, from slough to slough If chance at length he find a greensward smooth He chirrups brisk his ear-erecting steed, To adorn the Sofa with eulogium due, To tell its slumbers, and to paint its dreams, Since pulpits fail, and sounding boards reflect Most part and empty ineffectual sound, What chance that I to fame so little known, Nor conversant with men or manners much, Should speak to purpose, or with better hope Crack the satiric thong? 'Twere wiser far For me, enamoured of sequestered scenes, And charmed with rural beauty, to repose, Where chance may throw me, beneath elm or vine, My languid limbs, when summer sears the plains; Or, when rough winter. rages, on the soft |