I shall not add myself to such a chase,

Thwart his atttempts, or envy his success.
Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche, he was ordain'd to fill.
To the deliv❜rer of an injur'd land

He gives a tongue t'enlarge upon, a heart
To feel, and courage to redress her wrongs;
To monarchs dignity; to judges sense;
To artists ingenuity and skill;

To me, an unambitious mind, content
In the low vale of life, that early felt

A wish for ease and leisure, and ere long Found here that leisure and that ease I wish'd.

THE TASK.

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 Russia'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 Bastille, and a prisoner there.—Liberty the chief recommendation of this country.-Modern patriotism questionable, and why.—The perishable nature of the best human institutions.—Spiritual liberty not perishable.—The slavish state of man by nature.-Deliver him, Deist, if you can.— 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.

THE TASK.

BOOK V.

THE WINTER MORNING WALK.

Tis morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb
Ascending, fires th' horizon; while the clouds,
That crowd away before the driving wind,
More ardent as the disk emerges more,
Resemble most some city in a blaze,

Seen through the leafless wood. His slanting ray
Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale,
And, tingeing all with his own rosy hue,
From ev'ry herb and ev'ry spiry blade
Stretches a length of shadow o'er the field.
Mine, spindling into longitude immense,
In spite of gravity, and sage remark
That I myself am but a fleeting shade,