London ingulphs them all. The shark is there,
And the fhark's prey; the spendthrift, and the leech
That fucks him. There the fycophant, and he
Who, with bare-headed and obfequious bows,
Begs a warm office, doom'd to a cold jail,

And groat per diem, if his patron frown.

The levee fwarms, as if, in golden pomp,

Were character'd on ev'ry ftatefman's door,

"BATTER'D AND BANKRUPT FORTUNES MENDED HERE." These are the charms that fully and eclipfe

The charms of nature. 'Tis the cruel gripe
That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts,

The hope of better things, the chance to win,
The wish to shine, the thirst to be amus'd,
That at the found of Winter's hoary wing,
Unpeople all our counties, of fuch herds

Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, loofe
And wanton vagrants, as make London, vast
And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

Oh thou, refort and mart of all the earth, Chequer'd with all complexions of mankind, And fpotted with all crimes; in whom I fee Much that I love, and more that I admire, And all that I abhor; thou freckled fair, That pleases and yet shocks me, I can laugh And I can weep, can hope, and can despond, Feel wrath and pity, when I think on thee! Ten righteous would have fav'd a city once, And thou haft many righteous.-Well for thee— That falt preserves thee; more corrupted elfe, And therefore more obnoxious at this hour, Than Sodom in her day had pow'r to be,

For whom God heard his Abr'am plead in vain.

THE

TAS K.

BOOK IV.

ARGUMENT of the FOURTH BOOK,

The poft comes in.-The news-paper is read.-The world contemplated at a distance.-Addrefs to Winter.-The rural amufements of a winter evening compared with the fashionable ones.Addrefs to evening.—A brown Study.-Fall of fnow in the evening.—The waggoner. -A poor family-piece. The rural thief. - Public boufes.—The multitude of them cenfured.—The farmer's daughter, what she was — What he is.-The fimplicity of country manners almoft loft.-Causes of the change. - Defertion of the country by the rich.Neglect of magistrates. The militia principally in -The new recruit and his transformation. fault.Reflection on bodies corporate.-The love of rural objects natural to all, and never to be totally extin guished,

--

THE

T A

S K.

BOOK IV.

THE WINTER EVENING.

HARK! 'tis the twanging horn! o'er yonder bridge, That with its wearifome but needful length Beftrides the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;

He comes, the herald of a noify world,

With spatter'd boots, ftrapp'd waift, and frozen locks,
News from all nations lumb'ring at his back.
True to his charge, the close-pack'd load behind,
Yet careless what he brings, his one concern

Is to conduct it to the deftin'd inn,

And