ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH BOOK.
Afrofly morning.-The foddering of cattle.-The woodman and his dog.-The poultry.-Whimsical effects of froft at a waterfall.-The Empress of Ruffia's palace of ice.-Amusements of monarchs.War, one of them.-Wars, whence.—And whence monarchy-The evils of it.-English and French loyalty contrafted.-The Bafile, and a prifoner there.-Liberty the chief recommendation of this country.-Modern patriotism questionable, and why.-The perishable nature of the best human inftitutions.-Spiritual liberty not perishable.—The flavish fate of man by nature.-Deliver him, Deift, if you can.-Grace must do it.-The respective merits of patriots and martyrs flated.—Their different treatment.-Happy freedom of the man whom grace makes free.-His relish of the works of God.. -Addrefs to the Creator.
'Tis morning; and the fun, with ruddy orb Afcending, fires the horizon; while the clouds, That crowd away before the driving wind, More ardent as the difk emerges more, Refemble most some city in a blaze,
Seen through the leaflefs wood. His flanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the fnowy vale,
And, tinging all with his own rofy hue,
From every herb and every spiry blade
Stretches a length of fhadow o'er the field.
Mine, fpindling into longitude immense,
In fpite of gravity, and fage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting fhade,
Provokes me to a fmile. With eye askance
I view the mufcular proportioned limb
Transformed to a lean fhank. The fhapeless pair,
As they defigned to mock me, at my fide
Take step for step; and, as I near approach
The cottage, walk along the plastered wall,
Prepofterous fight! the legs without the man.
The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge; and the bents,
And coarfer grafs, upfpearing o'er the reft,
Of late unfightly and unfeen, now shine
Confpicuous, and in bright apparel clad,
And fledged with icy feathers, nod fuperb.
The cattle mourn in corners where the fence
Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep
In unrecumbent fadness. There they wait
Their wonted fodder; not like hungering man,
Fretful if unfupplied; but filent, meek,
And patient of the flow-paced swain's delay.
He from the ftack carves out the accustomed load,
Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft,
His broad keen knife into the folid mass :
Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands,
With fuch undeviating and even force
He fevers it away: no needless care,
Left ftorms should overfet the leaning pile
Deciduous, or its own unbalanced weight.
Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned
The cheerful haunts of man, to wield the axe
And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear,
From morn to eve his solitary task.
Shaggy, and lean, and fhrewd, with pointed ears
And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur,
His dog attends him. Close behind his heel
Now creeps he flow; and now, with many a frifk
Wide-fcampering, fnatches up the drifted fnow
With ivory teeth, or ploughs it with his fnout;
Then shakes his powdered coat, and barks for joy.
Heedlefs of all his pranks, the sturdy churl
Moves right toward the mark; nor ftops for aught,
But now and then with preffure of his thumb
To adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube,
That fumes beneath his nose: the trailing cloud
Streams far behind him, fcenting all the air.
Now from the rooft, or from the neighbouring pale,
Where, diligent to catch the first faint gleam
Of smiling day, they goffiped fide by fide,
Come trooping at the housewife's well-known call
The feathered tribes domeftic. Half on wing
And half on foot, they bruth the fleecy flood,
Conscious and fearful of too deep a plunge.
The sparrows peep, and quit the sheltering eaves
To feize the fair occafion. Well they eye
The scattered grain, and thievifhly resolved
To escape the impending famine, often feared
As oft return, a pert voracious kind.
Clean riddance quickly made, one only care
Remains to each, the fearch of funny nook,
Or fhed impervious to the blaft. Refigned
To fad neceffity, the cock foregoes
His wonted ftrut; and wading at their head
With well-confidered fteps, seems to resent
His altered gait and stateliness retrenched.
How find the myriads, that in fummer cheer
The hills and vallies with their ceafelefs fongs,
Due fuftenance, or where subsist they now?
Earth yields them nought; the imprisoned worm
Beneath the frozen clod; all feeds of herbs
Lie covered clofe; and berry-bearing thorns,
That feed the thrush, (whatever some suppose)
Afford the fmaller minstrels no supply.
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