ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST BOOK. Hiftorical deduction of feats, from the flool to the Sofa. A School-boy's ramble.—A walk in the country. -The Scene defcribed.-Rural founds as well as fights delightful.-Another walk.—Mistake concerning the charms of folitude corrected.-Colonnades commended.—Alcove, and the view from it. -The wilderness.-The grove.—The thresher.— The neceffity and the benefits of exercise.-The works of nature superior to, and in fome inftances inimitable by, art.-The wearifomeness of what is commonly called a life of pleasure.-Change of Scene fometimes expedient.-A common defcribed, and the character of crazy Kate introduced.—Gipfies.— The bleffings of civilized life.-That state moft favourable to virtue.-The South Sea islanders compaffionated, but chiefly Omai.-His prefent flate of mind fuppofed.-Civilized life friendly to virtue, but not great cities.-Great cities, and London in particular, allowed their due praife, but cenfured. -Fete champetre.-The book concludes with a reflection on the fatal effects of diffipation and effeminacy upon our public measures. THE TASK. BOOK I. THE SOFA. I SING the Sofa. I who lately fang Truth, Hope, and Charity*, and touched with awe Time was, when clothing sumptuous or for use, Save their own painted skins, our fires had none. As yet black breeches were not; satin smooth, Or velvet foft, or plush with fhaggy pile: And fwayed the fceptre of his infant realms : And drilled in holes, the solid oak is found, At length a generation more refined Improved the fimple plan; made three legs four, And over the feat, with plenteous wadding fluffed, And woven close, or needle-work fublime. There might ye fee the piony spread wide, The full-blown rose, the shepherd and his lass, Lap-dog and lambkin with black staring eyes, And parrots with twin cherries in their beak. Now came the cane from India smooth and bright With Nature's varnish; fevered into stripes, That interlaced each other, these supplied Of texture firm a lattice-work, that braced The new machine, and it became a chair. But reftlefs was the chair; the back erect Diftreffed the weary loins, that felt no ease; The flippery feat betrayed the fliding part, That preffed it, and the feet hung dangling down, Anxious in vain to find the distant floor. These for the rich: the reft, whom fate had placed With base materials, fat on well-tanned hides, If cushion might be called, what harder seemed |