London ingulphs them all. The shark is there,
And the shark's prey; the fpendthrift, and the leech
That fucks him. There the fycophant, and he
Who, with bare-headed and obfequious bows,
Begs a warm office, doom'd to a cold jail,
And groat per diem, if his patron frown.
The levee fwarms, 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 eclipfe
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 fhine, the thirst to be amus'd,
That at the found of Winter's hoary wing,
Unpeople all our counties, of fuch herds
Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, loose
And wanton vagrants, as make London, vast
And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

Oh thou, refort and mart of all the earth, Chequer'd with all complexions of mankind, And spotted with all crimes; in whom I fee Much that I love, and more that I admire, And all that I abhor; thou freckled fair, That pleases and yet fhocks 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 hast many righteous.—Well for thee— That 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 Abr'am plead in vain,

THE

TAS K.

BOOK IV.

K 4

ARGUMENT of the FOURTH BOOK,

The poft comes in.-The news-paper is read.—The world contemplated at a difiance.—Addrefs to Winter.--The rural amusements of a winter evening compared with the fashionable ones. Addrefs to evening.-A brown Study.-Fall of fnow in the evening.—The waggoner. -A poor family-piece. The rural thief.- Public boufes.-The multitude of them cenfured.—The farmer's daughter, what she was — What he is.-The Simplicity of country manners almost lost.—Causes 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 extinguifhed,

HARK! 'tis the twanging horn! o'er yonder bridge, That with its wearifome but needful length

Beftrides the wintry flood, in which the moon

Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;
He comes, the herald of a noify world,

With fpatter'd boots, ftrapp'd waift, and frozen locks,
News from all nations lumb'ring at his back.

True to his charge, the clofe-pack'd load behind,
Yet careless what he brings, his one concern
Is to conduct it to the deftin'd inn,

And