When gay good-nature dresses her in smiles.

`He grac'd a college, in which order yet

Was sacred; and was honour'd, lov'd, and wept,
By more than one, themselves conspicuous there.
Some minds are temper'd happily, and mixt
With such ingredients of good sense and taste
Of what is excellent in man, they thirst
With such a zeal to be what they approve,

That no restraints can circumscribe them more

Than they themselves by choice, for wisdom's sake;

Nor can example hurt them: what they see

Of vice in others but enhancing more

The charms of virtue in their just esteem.
If such escape contagion, and emerge

Pure, from so foul a pool, to shine abroad,
And give the world their talents and themselves,
Small thanks to those whose negligence or sloth

Ben'et Coll. Cambridge.

Expos'd their inexperience to the snare,

And left them to an undirected choice.

See, then, the quiver broken and decay'd,
In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there'
In wild disorder, and unfit for use,

What wonder if, discharg'd into the world,
They shame their shooters with a random flight,
Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine!
Well may the church wage unsuccessful war,
With such artill'ry arm'd. Vice parries wide
Th' undreaded volley with a sword of straw,
And stands an impudent and fearless mark,

Have we not track'd the felon home, and found His birth-place and his dam? The country mournsMourns, because ev'ry plague that can infest Society, and that saps and worms the base Of th' edifice that policy has rais'd,

Swarms in all quarters; meets the eye, the ear,

And suffocates the breath at ev'ry turn.

Profusion breeds them; and the cause itself
Of that calamitous mischief has been found:
Found, too, where most offensive, in the skirts
Of the rob'd pedagogue! Else, let th' arraign'd
Stand up unconscious, and refute the charge.
So, when the Jewish leader stretch'd his arm,
And wav'd his rod divine, a race obscene,
Spawn'd in the muddy beds of Nile, came forth
Polluting Egypt; gardens, fields, and plains,
Were cover'd with the pest; the streets were fill'd;
The croaking nuisance lurk'd in ev'ry nook;
Nor palaces, nor even chambers, 'scap'd;

And the land stank-so num'rous 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.