That bids defiance to the united powers

Of fashion, diffipation, taverns, ftews.

Now blame we moft the nurflings or the nurse?
The children crooked, and twisted, and deformed,
Through want of care; or her, whose winking eye
And flumbering ofcitancy mars the brood?
The nurse no doubt. Regardless of her charge
She needs herself correction; needs to learn,
That it is dangerous fporting with the world,
With things fo facred as a nation's truft,
The nurture of her youth, her dearest pledge.

All are not fuch. 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 dreffes her in fmiles. He graced a college *, in which order yet Was facred; and was honoured, loved, and wept, By more than one, themselves confpicuous there. Some minds are tempered happily, and mixt With fuch ingredients of good sense, and tafte Of what is excellent in man, they thirft With fuch a zeal to be what they approve,

Bene't Coll. Cambridge.

That no reftraints can circumfcribe them more

Than they themselves by choice, for wisdom's fake;
Nor can example hurt them: what they see
Of vice in others but enhancing more
The charms of virtue in their juft esteem.
If such escape contagion, and emerge
Pure from fo foul a pool to shine abroad,
And give the world their talents and themselves,
Small thanks to thofe, whofe negligence or floth
Exposed their inexperience to the fnare,
And left them to an undirected choice.

See then the quiver broken and decayed,
In which are kept our arrows! Rufting there
In wild disorder, and unfit for use,

What wonder, if, discharged into the world,
They shame their shooters with a random flight,
Their points obtufe, and feathers drunk with wine!
Well may the church wage unsuccessful war
With fuch artillery armed. Vice parries wide
The undreaded volley with a fword of straw,
And ftands an impudent and fearless mark,

Have we not tracked the felon home, and found His birth-place and his dam? The country mourns, Mourns because every plague, that can infeft

Society, and that faps and worms the base
Of the edifice, that policy has raised,

Swarms in all quarters: meets the eye, the ear,
And fuffocates the breath at every turn.
Profufion breeds them; and the cause itself
Of that calamitous mifchief has been found:
Found too where moft offenfive, in the skirts
Of the robed pedagogue! Elfe let the arraigned
Stand up unconscious, and refute the charge.
So when the Jewish leader ftretched his arm,
And waved his rod divine, a race obscene,

Spawned in the muddy beds of Nile, came forth,
Polluting Ægypt: gardens, fields, and plains,
Were covered with the peft; the ftreets were filled;
The croaking nuisance lurked in every nook;
Nor palaces, nor even chambers, 'fcaped;
And the land ftank-so numerous was the fry.

THE TASK.

BOOK III.

ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD BOOK.

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.