That Nature lives; that sight-refreshing green
Is still the livery she delights to wear,
Though sickly samples of the' exuberant whole.
What are the casements lined with creeping herbs,
The prouder sashes fronted with a range
Of orange, myrtle, or the fragrant weed,

The Frenchman's darling*? are they not all proofs,
That man, immured in cities, still retains
His inborn inextinguishable thirst
Of rural scenes, compensating his loss
By supplemental shifts, the best he may?

The most unfurnish'd with the means of life,
And they, that never pass their brick-wall bounds,
To range the fields, and treat their lungs with air,
Yet feel the burning instinct: overhead
Suspend their crazy boxes, planted thick,
And water'd duly. There the pitcher stands
A fragment, and the spoutless teapot there;
Sad witnesses how close-pent man regrets
The country, with what ardour he contrives
A peep at Nature, when he can no more.

Hail, therefore, patroness of health, and ease,
And contemplation, heart-consoling joys,
And harmless pleasures, in the throng'd abode
Of multitudes unknown; hail, rural life!
Address himself who will to the pursuit
Of honours, or emolument, or fame:
I shall not add myself to such a chase,
Thwart his attempts, or envy his success.
• Mignonette.

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 deliverer of an injured land

He gives a tongue to' 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.

MARCH 25. 1825.

THE TASK.

BOOK V.

THE WINTER MORNING WALK.

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 Bastile, 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.

'Tis morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb
Ascending, fires the' 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