At his last gasp; but could not for a world By endless riot, vanity, the lust As duly as the swallows disappear, The world of wand'ring knights and squires to town. Begs a warm office, doom'd to a cold jail Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, loose, O thou, resort and mart of all the earth, Checker'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, For whom God heard his Abr’ham plead in vain. ARGUMENT OF THE FOURTH BOOK, The post comes in.-The newspaper is read.-The world contemplated at a distance.-Address to Winter. The rural amusements of a winter evening compared with the fashionable ones.-Address to Evening.-A brown study.-Fall of snow in the evening-The wagoner.-A poor familypiece. The rural thief.-Publick houses.-The multitude of them censured.-The farmer's daughter what she was-what she is.-The simplicity of country manners almost lost.-Causes of the change. Desertion of the country by the rich.-Neglect of magistrates.-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 extinguished. THE TASK. BOOK IV. THE WINTER EVENING. HARK! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needful length News from all nations lumb'ring at his back. |