Unpeople all our counties of such herds

Of fluttering, loitering, cringing, begging, loose, And wanton vagrants, as make London, vast And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.

O thou resort and mart of all the earth, Checker'd with all complexions of mankind, And spotted with all crimes; in whom I see Much that I love, and more that I admire, And all that I abhor; thou freckled fair, That pleasest and yet shock'st 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 saved a city once, And thou hast many righteous.-Well for theeThat salt preserves thee; more corrupted else, And therefore, more obnoxious at this hour, Than Sodom in her day had power to be,

For whom God heard His Abraham plead in vain.

THE TASK.

BOOK IV. THE WINTER EVENING.

ARGUMENT.

Address

The post comes in. The newspaper is read. The world contemplated at a distance. Address to Winter. The rural amusements of a winter evening compared with the fashionable ones. to Evening. A brown study. Fall of snow in the evening. The wagoner. A poor family piece. The rural thief. Public-houses. The multitude of them censured. The farmer's daughter: what she was, what she is. The simplicity of country manners almost lost. Causes of the change. Desertion of the country by the rich. Neglect of magistrates. The militia principally in fault. The new recruit and his transformation. Reflection on bodies corporate. The love of rural objects natural to all, and never to be totally extinguished.

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