Τ Η Ε

T. A S. K.

BOOK V.

ARGUMENT of the FIFTH BOOK.

A frosty morning. The foddering of cattle. The

woodman and his dog.-The poultry.—Whimsical effects of frost 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 contrasted.--The Bastile, and a prisoner there. -- Liberty the chief recommendation of this country. -— Modern patriotism questionable, and why. I ke perishable nature of the best human infitutions. Spiritual liberty not perishable.—The savish state of man by nature.--Deliver him, Deist, if you Grace must do it. The respective merits of patriots and martyrs stated. Their different treatment Happy freedom of the man whom grace makes free. His relish of the works of God. Address to the Creator.

can.

'Tis morning; and the fun with ruddy orb
Ascending, fires the horizon; while the clouds
That crowd away before the driving wind,
More ardent as the disk emerges more,
Refemble most some city in a blaze,
Seen through the leaflefs wood. His flanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale,
And tinging all with his own rosy hue;
From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade
Stretches a length of fhadow o'er the field.
Mine, spindling into longitude immense;
In spite of gravity, and fage remark

That

That I myfelf am but a fleeting fhade,
Provokes me to a smile. With

eye

alkance I view the muscular proportioned limb Transform'd to a lean shạnk. The Thapeless pair, As they design'd to mock me, at my side Take step for step ; and as I near approach The cottage, walk along the plaister'd wall, Preposterous fight ! the legs without the man. The verdure of the plain lies buried deep Beneath the dazzling deluge ; and the bents, And coarser grass upspearing o'er the rest, Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine Conspicuous, and in bright apparel clad, And fledg'd with icy feathers, nod fuperb. The cattle mourn in corners where the fence Screens them, and seem half petrify'd to sleep In unrecumbent fadness. There they wait Their wonted fodder, not like hung’ring man Fretful if unsupply'd, but filent, meek, And patient of the flow-pac'd fwains delay. He from the stack carves out th' accustom'd load, Deep-plunging, and again deep plunging oft His broad keen knife into the solid mass; Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands, With such undeviating and even force He severs it away; no needless care Left storms should overset the leaning pile Deciduous, or its own unbalanc'd weight.

Forth

Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcern'd
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 shrewd, with pointed ears
And tail cropp'd short, half lurcher and half cur,
His dog attends him. Close behind his heel
Now creeps he flow; and now with many a frisk
Wide-scamp'ring, snatches up the drifted snow
With iv'ry teeth, or ploughs it with his snout ;
Then shakes his powder'd coat and barks for joy.
Heedless of all his pranks, the sturdy churl
Moves right toward the mark; nor stops for aught,
But, now and then, with pressure of his thumb
T adjust the fragrant charge of a short tube
That fumes beneath his nose: the trailing cloud
Streams far behind him, scenting all the air.
Now from the rooft, or from the neighb'ring pale,
Where, diligent to catch the first faint gleam
Of smiling day, they goffip'd fide by fide,
Come trooping at the housewife's well known call
The feather'd tribes domestic. Half on wing,
And half on foot, they brush the fleecy flood,
Conscious, and fearful of too deep a plunge.
The sparrows peep, and quit the shelt’ring eaves
To seize the fair occafion. Well they eye
The scatter'd grain, and thievithly resolv'd
T'escape th' impending famine, often scar'd

As