THE ARGUMENT. The post comes in.-The newspaper is read.-The World contemplated at a distance.-Address to Winter.-The rural amusements of a winter evening compar'd with the fashionable ones.—Address to evening.—A brown study.-Fall of snow in the evening.-The waggoner. -A poor family piece.-The rural thief.-Public 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 it's wearisome but needful length Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;— He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks; News from all nations lumb'ring at his back. True to his charge, the close pack'd load behind, Is to conduct it to the destin'd inn; He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, 10 Cold and yet cheerful; messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some; Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks, Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet With tears, that trickled down the writer's cheeks Fast as the periods from his fluent quill, Or charg❜d with am'rous sighs of absent swains, His horse and him, unconscious of them all. 21 30 And the loud laugh--I long to know them all; Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, And, while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups, That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful ev'ning in. Not such his ev'ning, who with shining face Sweats in the crowded theatre, and, squeez'd 40 And bor'd with elbow points through both his sides, Outscolds the ranting actor on the stage: Nor his, who patient stands till his feet throb, This folio of four pages, happy work! 50 Which not ev'n critics criticise; that holds Inquisitive Attention, while I read, Fast bound in chains of silence, which the fair, Though eloquent themselves, yet fear to break; What is it, but a map of busy life, It's fluctuations, and it's vast concerns? Here runs the mountainous and craggy ridge, That tempts Ambition. On the summit see He climbs, he pants, he grasps them! At his heels, 61 And with a dext'rous jerk soon twists him down, And wins them, but to lose them in his turn. Here rills of oily eloquence in soft Sweet bashfulness! it claims at least this praise; |