[THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.]

ARGUMENT of the SIXTH BOOK.

Bells at a distance. — Their effect. — A fine noon in winter. — A sheltered walk. — Meditation better than books. — Our familiarity with the course of nature makes it appear less wonderful than it is. — The transformation that spring effects in a shrubbery described. — A mistake concerning the course of nature corrected. — God maintains it by an unremitted act. — The amusements fashionable at this hour of the day reproved. — Animals happy, a delightful sight. — Origin of cruelty to animals. — That it is a great crime proved from scripture. — That proof illustrated by a tale. — A line drawn between the lawful and the unlawful destruction of them. — Their good and useful properties insisted on. — Apology for the encomiums bestowed by the author on animals. — Instances of man's extravagant praise of man. — The groans of the creation shall have an end. — A view taken of the restoration of all things. — An Invocation and an Invitation of him who shall bring it to pass. The retired man vindicated from the charge of uselessness. — Conclusion.

[Page]

BOOK VI.

THE WINTER WALK AT NOON.

THERE is in souls a sympathy with sounds,
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleas'd
With melting airs or martial, brisk or grave. 
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touched within us, and the heart replies. 
How soft the music of those village bells
Falling at intervals upon the ear
In cadence sweet! now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again and louder still,
Clear and sonorous as the gale comes on. 
With easy force it opens all the cells
[Page 232]12  Where mem'ry slept. Wherever I have heard
A kindred melody, the scene recurs,
And with it all its pleasures and its pains. 
Such comprehensive views the spirit takes,
That in a few short moments I retrace
(As in a map the voyager his course)
The windings of my way through many years. 
Short as in retrospect the journey seems,
It seem'd not always short; the rugged path
And prospect oft so dreary and forlorn
Moved many a sigh at its disheart'ning length. 
Yet feeling present evils, while the past
Faintly impress the mind, or not at all,
How readily we wish time spent revoked,
That we might try the ground again, where once
(Through inexperience as we now perceive)
We miss'd that happiness we might have found. 
Some friend is gone, perhaps his son's best friend
A father, whose authority, in show
[Page 233]31  When most severe, and must'ring all its force,
Was but the graver countenance of love. 
Whose favour like the clouds of spring, might low'r
And utter now and then an awful voice,
But had a blessing in its darkest frown,
Threat'ning at once and nourishing the plant. 
We loved, but not enough the gentle hand
That reared us. At a thoughtless age allured
By ev'ry gilded folly, we renounced
His shelt'ring side, and wilfully forewent
That converse which we now in vain regret. 
How gladly would the man recall to life
The boy's neglected sire! a mother too,
That softer friend, perhaps more gladly still
Might he demand them at the gates of death. 
Sorrow has since they went subdued and tamed
The playful humour, he could now endure,
(Himself grown sober in the vale of tears)
And feel a parent's presence no restraint. 
But not to understand a treasure's worth
[Page 234]51  'Till time has stol'n away the slighted good,
Is cause of half the poverty we feel,
And makes the world the wilderness it is,
The few that pray at all pray oft amiss,
And seeking grace t' improve the prize they hold
Would urge a wiser suit, than asking more. 

The night was winter in his roughest mood,
The morning sharp and clear. But now at noon
Upon the southern side of the slant hills,
And where the woods fence off the northern blast,
The season smiles resigning all its rage
And has the warmth of May. The vault is blue
Without a cloud, and white without a speck
The dazzling splendour of the scene below. 
Again the harmony comes o'er the vale,
And through the trees I view th' embattled tow'r
Whence all the music. I again perceive
The soothing influence of the wafted strains,
And settle in soft musings as I tread
[Page 235]70  The walk still verdant under oaks and elms,
Whose outspread branches overarch the glade. 
The roof though moveable through all its length
As the wind sways it, has yet well sufficed,
And intercepting in their silent fall
The frequent flakes, has kept a path for me. 
No noise is here, or none that hinders thought. 
The red-breast warbles still, but is content
With slender notes and more than half suppress'd. 
Pleased with his solitude, and flitting light
From spray to spray, where'er he rests he shakes
From many a twig the pendent drops of ice,
That tinkle in the wither'd leaves below. 
Stillness accompanied with sounds so soft
Charms more than silence. Meditation here
May think down hours to moments. Here the heart
May give an useful lesson to the head,
And learning wiser grow without his books. 
Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,
Have oft times no connexion. Knowledge dwells
[Page 236]90  In heads replete with thoughts of other men,
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. 
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds,
'Till smooth'd and squared and fitted to its place
Does but incumber whom it seems t' enrich. 
Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much,
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. 
Books are not seldom talismans and spells
By which the magic art of shrewder wits
Holds an unthinking multitude enthrall'd. 
Some to the fascination of a name
Surrender judgment hood-wink'd. Some the stile
Infatuates, and through labyrinths and wilds
Of error, leads them by a tune entranced. 
While sloth seduces more, too weak to bear
The insupportable fatigue of thought,
And swallowing therefore without pause or choice
The total grist unsifted, husks and all. 
But trees, and rivulets whose rapid course
[Page 237]110  Defies the check of winter, haunts of deer,
And sheep-walks populous with bleating lambs,
And lanes in which the primrose 'ere her time
Peeps through the moss that cloaths the hawthorn root,
Deceive no student. Wisdom there, and truth,
Not shy as in the world, and to be won
By slow solicitation, seize at once
The roving thought, and fix it on themselves. 

What prodigies can pow'r divine perform
More grand, than it produces year by year,
And all in sight of inattentive man? 
Familiar with th' effect we slight the cause,
And in the constancy of nature's course,
The regular return of genial months,
And renovation of a faded world,
See nought to wonder at. Should God again
As once in Gibeon, interrupt the race
Of the undeviating and punctual sun,
How would the world admire! but speaks it less
[Page 238]129  An agency divine, to make him know
His moment when to sink and when to rise
Age after age, than to arrest his course? 
All we behold is miracle, but seen
So duly, all is miracle in vain. 
Where now the vital energy that moved
While summer was, the pure and subtle lymph
Through th' imperceptible maeandring veins
Of leaf and flow'r? It sleeps; and the icy touch
Of unprolific winter has impress'd
A cold stagnation on th' intestine tide. 
But let the months go round, a few short months,
And all shall be restored. These naked shoots
Barren as lances, among which the wind
Makes wintry music, sighing as it goes,
Shall put their graceful foliage on again,
And more aspiring and with ampler spread
Shall boast new charms, and more than they have lost. 
Then, each in its peculiar honors clad,
Shall publish even to the distant eye
[Page 239]149  Its family and tribe. Laburnum rich
In streaming gold; syringa iv'ry-pure;
The scented and the scentless rose; this red
Andofanhumblergrowth,the** The Guelder-rose.
othertall,
And throwing up into the darkest gloom
Of neighb'ring cypress or more sable yew
Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf
That the wind severs from the broken wave. 
The lilac various in array, now white,
Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set
With purple spikes pyramidal, as if
Studious of ornament, yet unresolved
Which hue she most approved, she chose them all. 
Copious of flow'rs the woodbine, pale and wan,
But well compensating their sickly looks
With never-cloying odours, early and late. 
Hypericum all bloom, so thick a swarm
Of flow'rs like flies cloathing her slender rods
That scarce a leaf appears. Mezerion too
Though leafless well attired, and thick beset
[Page 240]169  With blushing wreaths investing ev'ry spray. 
Althaea with the purple eye, the broom,
Yellow and bright as bullion unalloy'd
Her blossoms, and luxuriant above all
The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets,
The deep dark green of whose unvarnish'd leaf
Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more
The bright profusion of her scatter'd stars. —
These have been, and these shall be in their day. 
And all this uniform uncoloured scene
Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load,
And flush into variety again. 
From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,
Is Nature's progress when she lectures man
In heav'nly truth; evincing as she makes
The grand transition, that there lives and works
A soul in all things, and that soul is God. 
The beauties of the wilderness are his,
That make so gay the solitary place
Where no eye sees them. And the fairer forms
[Page 241]189  That cultivation glories in, are his. 
He sets the bright procession on its way,
And marshals all the order of the year. 
He marks the bounds which winter may not pass,
And blunts his pointed fury. In its case
Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ
Uninjured, with inimitable art,
And 'ere one flow'ry season fades and dies
Designs the blooming wonders of the next. 

Some say that in the origin of things
When all creation started into birth,
The infant elements received a law
From which they swerve not since. That under force
Of that controuling ordinance they move,
And need not his immediate hand, who first
Prescribed their course, to regulate it now. 
Thus dream they, and contrive to save a God
The incumbrance of his own concerns, and spare
The great Artificer of all that moves
[Page 242]208  The stress of a continual act, the pain
Of unremitted vigilance and care,
As too laborious and severe a task. 
So man, the moth, is not afraid it seems
To span Omnipotence, and measure might
That knows no measure, by the scanty rule
And standard of his own, that is to day,
And is not, 'ere to-morrow's sun go down. 
But how should matter occupy a charge
Dull as it is, and satisfy a law
So vast in its demands, unless impell'd
To ceaseless service by a ceaseless force,
And under pressure of some conscious cause? 
The Lord of all, himself through all diffused,
Sustains and is the life of all that lives. 
Nature is but a name for an effect
Whose cause is God. He feeds the secret fire
By which the mighty process is maintain'd,
Who sleeps not, is not weary; in whose sight
Slow-circling ages are as transient days;
[Page 243]228  Whose work is without labor, whose design
No flaw deforms, no difficulty thwarts,
And whose beneficence no charge exhausts
Him blind antiquity profaned, not serv'd,
With self-taught rites and under various names
Female and male, Pomona, Pales, Pan,
And Flora and Vertumnus; peopling earth
With tutelary goddesses and gods
That were not, and commending as they would
To each some province, garden, field, or grove. 
But all are under one. One spirit — His
Who wore the platted thorns with bleeding brows,
Rules universal nature. Not a flow'r
But shows some touch in freckle, streak or stain,
Of his unrivall'd pencil. He inspires
Their balmy odors and imparts their hues,
And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes
In grains as countless as the sea-side sands,
The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth. 
Happy who walks with him! whom what he finds
[Page 244]248  Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flow'r,
Or what he views of beautiful or grand
In Nature, from the broad majestic oak
To the green blade that twinkles in the fun,
Prompts with remembrance of a present God. 
His presence who made all so fair, perceived,
Makes all still fairer. As with him no scene
Is dreary, so with him all seasons please. 
Though winter had been none, had man been true,
And earth be punished for its tenant's sake,
Yet not in vengeance; as this smiling sky
So soon succeeding such an angry night,
And these dissolving snows, and this clear stream
Recov'ring fast its liquid music, prove. 

Who then that has a mind well strung and tuned
To contemplation, and within his reach
A scene so friendly to his fav'rite task,
Would waste attention at the chequer'd board,
His host of wooden warriors to and fro
[Page 245]267  Marching and counter-marching, with an eye
As fixt as marble, with a forehead ridged
And furrow'd into storms, and with a hand
Trembling, as if eternity were hung
In balance on his conduct of a pin? 
Nor envies he aught more their idle sport
Who pant with application misapplied
To trivial toys, and pushing iv'ry balls
Across the velvet level, feel a joy
Akin to rapture, when the bawble finds
Its destin'd goal of difficult access. 
Nor deems he wiser him, who gives his noon
To Miss, the Mercer's plague, from shop to shop
Wand'ring, and litt'ring with unfolded silks
The polished counter, and approving none,
Or promising with smiles to call again. 
Nor him, who by his vanity seduced
And sooth'd into a dream that he discerns
The difference of a Guido from a daub,
Frequents the crowded auction. Station'd there
[Page 246]287  As duely as the Langford of the show,
With glass at eye, and catalogue in hand,
And tongue accomplish'd in the fulsome cant
And pedantry that coxcombs learn with ease,
Oft as the price-deciding hammer falls
He notes it in his book, then raps his box
Swears 'tis a bargain, rails at his hard fate
That he has let it pass — but never bids. 

Here unmolefted, through whatever sign
The sun proceeds, I wander. Neither mist,
Nor freezing sky, nor sultry, checking me,
Nor stranger intermeddling with my joy. 
Ev'n in the spring and play-time of the year
That calls the unwonted villager abroad
With all her little ones, a sportive train,
To gather king-cups in the yellow mead,
And prink their hair with daisies, or to pick
A cheap but wholesome sallad from the brook,
These shades are all my own. The tim'rous hare
[Page 247]306  Grown so familiar with her frequent guest
Scarce shuns me; and the stock dove unalarm'd
Sits cooing in the pine-tree, nor suspends
His long love-ditty for my near approach. 
Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm
That age or injury has hollow'd deep,
Where on his bed of wool and matted leaves
He has outslept the winter, ventures forth
To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm sun,
The squirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play. 
He sees me, and at once, swift as a bird
Ascends the neighb'ring beech; there whisks his brush
And perks his ears, and stamps and scolds aloud,
With all the prettiness of feign'd alarm,
And anger insignificantly fierce. 

The heart is hard in nature, and unfit
For human fellowship, as being void
Of sympathy, and therefore dead alike
To love and friendship both, that is not pleased
[Page 248]325  With sight of animals enjoying life,
Nor feels their happiness augment his own. 
The bounding fawn that darts across the glade
When none pursues, through mere delight of heart,
And spirits buoyant with excess of glee;
The horse, as wanton and almost as fleet,
That skims the spacious meadow at full speed,
Then stops and snorts, and throwing high his heels
Starts to the voluntary race again;
The very kine that gambol at high noon,
The total herd receiving first from one
That leads the dance, a summons to be gay,
Though wild their strange vagaries, and uncouth
Their efforts, yet resolved with one consent
To give such act and utt'rance as they may
To extasy too big to be suppress'd —
These, and a thousand images of bliss,
With which kind nature graces ev'ry scene
Where cruel man defeats not her design,
Impart to the benevolent, who wish
[Page 249]345  All that are capable of pleasure, pleased,
A far superior happiness to theirs,
The comfort of a reasonable joy. 

Man scarce had ris'n, obedient to his call
Who form'd him, from the dust his future grave,
When he was crown'd as never king was since. 
God set the diadem upon his head,
And angel choirs attended. Wond'ring stood
The new-made monarch, while before him pass'd,
All happy and all perfect in their kind
The creatures, summon'd from their various haunts
To see their sov'reign, and confess his sway. 
Vast was his empire, absolute his pow'r,
Or bounded only by a law whose force
'Twas his sublimest privilege to feel
And own, the law of universal love. 
He ruled with meekness, they obeyed with joy. 
No cruel purpose lurk'd within his heart,
And no distrust of his intent in theirs. 
[Page 250]364 So Eden was a scene of harmless sport,
Where kindness on his part who ruled the whole
Begat a tranquil confidence in all,
And fear as yet was not, nor cause for fear. 
But sin marr'd all. And the revolt of man,
That source of evils not exhausted yet,
Was punish'd with revolt of his from him. 
Garden of God, how terrible the change
Thy groves and lawns then witness'd! ev'ry heart,
Each animal of ev'ry name, conceived
A jealousy and an instinctive fear,
And conscious of some danger, either fled
Precipitate the loath'd abode of man,
Or growl'd defiance in such angry sort,
As taught him too to tremble in his turn. 
Thus harmony and family accord
Were driv'n from Paradise; and in that hour
The seeds of cruelty that since have swell'd
To such gigantic and enormous growth,
Were sown in human nature's fruitful soil. 
[Page 251]384 Hence date the persecution and the pain
That man inflicts on all inferior kinds
Regardless of their plaints. To make him sport,
To gratify the frenzy of his wrath,
Or his base gluttony, are causes good
And just in his account, why bird and beast
Should suffer torture, and the streams be dyed
With blood of their inhabitants impaled. 
Earth groans beneath the burthen of a war
Waged with defenceless innocence, while he,
Not satisfied to prey on all around,
Adds tenfold bitterness to death, by pangs
Needless, and first torments 'ere he devours. 
Now happiest they that occupy the scenes
The most remote from his abhorr'd resort,
Whom once as delegate of God on earth
They fear'd, and as his perfect image loved. 
The wilderness is theirs with all its caves,
Its hollow glenns, its thickets, and its plains
Unvisited by man. There they are free,
[Page 252]404  And howl and roar as likes them, uncontroul'd,
Nor ask his leave to slumber or to play. 
Woe to the tyrant if he dare intrude
Within the confines of their wild domain;
The lion tells him — I am monarch here —
And if he spare him, spares him on the terms
Of royal mercy, and through gen'rous scorn
To rend a victim trembling at his foot. 
In measure as by force of instinct drawn,
Or by necessity constrain'd, they live
Dependent upon man, those in his fields,
These at his crib, and some beneath his roof,
They prove too often at how dear a rate
He sells protection. Witness, at his foot
The spaniel dying for some venial fault,
Under dissection of the knotted scourge. 
Witness, the patient ox, with stripes and yells
Driv'n to the slaughter, goaded as he runs
To madness, while the savage at his heels
Laughs at the frantic suff'rers fury spent
[Page 253]424  Upon the guiltless passenger o'erthrown. 
He too is witness, noblest of the train
That wait on man, the flight-performing horse. 
With unsuspecting readiness he takes
His murth'rer on his back, and push'd all day
With bleeding sides and flanks that heave for life
To the far-distant goal, arrives and dies. 
So little mercy shows who needs so much! 
Does law, so jealous in the cause of man,
Denounce no doom on the delinquent? None. 
He lives, and o'er his brimming beaker boasts
(As if barbarity were high desert)
Th' inglorious feat, and clamorous in praise
Of the poor brute, seems wisely to suppose
The honors of his matchless horse his own. 
But many a crime, deem'd innocent on earth,
Is register'd in heav'n, and these no doubt,
Have each their record, with a curse annext. 
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,
But God will never. When he charged the Jew
[Page 254]444  T' assist his foe's down-fallen beast to rise,
And when the bush-exploring boy that seized
The young, to let the parent bird go free,
Proved he not plainly that his meaner works
Are yet his care, and have an interest all,
All, in the universal father's love. 
On Noah, and in him on all mankind
The charter was conferr'd by which we hold
The flesh of animals in fee, and claim
O'er all we feed on, pow'r of life and death. 
But read the instrument, and mark it well. 
Th' oppression of a tyrannous controul
Can find no warrant there. Feed then, and yield
Thanks for thy food. Carnivorous through sin
Feed on the slain, but spare the living brute. 

The Governor of all, himself to all
So bountiful, in whose attentive ear
The unfledged raven and the lion's whelp
Plead not in vain for pity on the pangs
[Page 255]463  Of hunger unassuaged, has interposed,
Not seldom, his avenging arm, to smite
Th' injurious trampler upon nature's law
That claims forbearance even for a brute. 
He hates the hardness of a Balaam's heart;
And prophet as he was, he might not strike
The blameless animal, without rebuke,
On which he rode. Her opportune offence
Saved him, or th' unrelenting seer had died. 
He sees that human equity is slack
To interfere, though in so just a cause,
And makes the task his own. Inspiring dumb
And helpless victims with a sense so keen
Of injury, with such knowledge of their strength,
And such sagacity to take revenge,
That oft the beast has seemed to judge the man. 
An ancient, not a legendary tale,
By one of sound intelligence rehears'd
(If such, who plead for Providence, may seem
In modern eyes) shall make the doctrine clear. 

[Page 256]

Where England stretch'd towards the setting sun
Narrow and long, o'erlooks the western wave,
Dwelt young Misagathus. A scorner he
Of God and goodness, atheist in ostent,
Vicious in act, in temper savage-fierce. 
He journey'd, and his chance was as he went,
To join a trav'ller of far diff'rent note
Evander, famed for piety, for years
Deserving honor, but for wisdom more. 
Fame had not left the venerable man
A stranger to the manners of the youth,
Whose face too was familiar to his view. 
Their way was on the margin of the land,
O'er the green summit of the rocks whose base
Beats back the roaring surge, scarce heard so high. 
The charity that warm'd his heart was moved
At sight of the man-monster. With a smile
Gentle, and affable, and full of grace,
As fearful of offending whom he wish'd
Much to persuade, he plied his ear with truths
[Page 257]503  Not harshly thunder'd forth or rudely press'd,
But like his purpose, gracious, kind, and sweet. 
And dost thou dream, th' impenetrable man
Exclaim'd, that me, the lullabies of age
And fantasies of dotards such as thou
Can cheat, or move a moment's fear in me? 
Mark now the proof I give thee, that the brave
Need no such aids as superstition lends
To steel their hearts against the dread of death. 
He spoke, and to the precipice at hand
Push'd with a madman's fury. Fancy shrinks,
And the blood thrills and curdles at the thought
Of such a gulph as he design'd his grave. 
But though the felon on his back could dare
The dreadful leap, more rational his steed
Declined the death, and wheeling swiftly round
Or 'ere his hoof had press'd the crumbling verge,
Baffled his rider, saved against his will. 
The frenzy of the brain may be redress'd
By med'cine well applied, but without grace
[Page 258]523  The heart's insanity admits no cure. 
Enraged the more by what might have reform'd
His horrible intent, again he sought
Destruction with a zeal to be destroyed,
With sounding whip and rowels dyed in blood. 
But still in vain. The providence that meant
A longer date to the far nobler beast,
Spared yet again th' ignobler for his sake. 
And now, his prowess proved, and his sincere
Incurable obduracy evinced,
His rage grew cool; and pleased perhaps t' have earn'd
So cheaply the renown of that attempt,
With looks of some complacence he resumed
His road, deriding much the blank amaze
Of good Evander, still where he was left
Fixt motionless, and petrified with dread. 
So on they fared; discourse on other themes
Ensuing, seem'd to obliterate the past,
And tamer far for so much fury shown,
(As is the course of rash and fiery men)
[Page 259]543  The rude companion smiled as if transform'd. 
But 'twas a transient calm. A storm was near,
An unsuspected storm. His hour was come. 
The impious challenger of pow'r divine
Was now to learn, that heav'n though slow to wrath,
Is never with impunity defied. 
His horse, as he had caught his master's mood,
Snorting, and starting into sudden rage,
Unbidden, and not now to be controul'd,
Rush'd to the cliff, and having reach'd it, stood. 
At once the shock unseated him. He flew
Sheer o'er the craggy barrier, and immersed
Deep in the flood, found, when he sought it not,
The death he had deserved, and died alone. 
So God wrought double justice; made the fool
The victim of his own tremendous choice
And taught a brute the way to safe revenge. 

I would not enter on my list of friends
(Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine sense
[Page 260]562  Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. 
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path,
But he that has humanity, forewarned,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live. 
The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes
A visitor unwelcome into scenes
Sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove,
The chamber, or refectory, may die. 
A necessary act incurs no blame. 
Not so when held within their proper bounds
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field. 
There they are privileged. And he that hunts
Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs th' oeconomy of nature's realm,
Who when she form'd, designed them an abode. 
The sum is this: if man's convenience, health,
[Page 261]582  Or safety interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs. 
Else they are all — the meanest things that are,
As free to live and to enjoy that life,
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who in his sov'reign wisdom made them all. 
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonour'd and defiled in most
By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand
To check them. But alas! none sooner shoots,
If unrestrain'd, into luxuriant growth,
Than cruelty, most dev'lish of them all. 
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule
And righteous limitation of its act
By which heav'n moves in pard'ning guilty man;
And he that shows none, being ripe in years,
And conscious of the out'rage he commits
Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn. 

[Page 262]

Distinguish'd much by reason, and still more
By our capacity of grace divine,
From creatures that exist but for our sake,
Which having served us, perish, we are held
Accountable, and God, some future day,
Will reckon with us roundly for th' abuse
Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust. 
Superior as we are, they yet depend
Not more on human help, than we on theirs. 
Their strength, or speed, or vigilance, were giv'n
In aid of our defects. In some are found
Such teachable and apprehensive parts,
That man's attainments in his own concerns
Match'd with th' expertness of the brutes in theirs,
Are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind. 
Some show that nice sagacity of smell,
And read with such discernment, in the ports
And figure of the man, his secret aim,
That oft we owe our safety to a skill
We could not teach, and must despair to learn. 
[Page 263]621 But learn we might, if not too proud to stoop
To quadrupede instructors, many a good
And useful quality, and virtue too,
Rarely exemplified among ourselves. 
Attachment never to be wean'd, or changed
By any change of fortune, proof alike
Against unkindness, absence, and neglect;
Fidelity, that neither bribe nor threat
Can move or warp, and gratitude for small
And trivial favors, lasting as the life,
And glist'ning even in the dying eye. 

Man praises man. Desert in arts or arms
Wins public honor; and ten thousand sit
Patiently present at a sacred song,
Commemoration-mad; content to hear
(Oh wonderful effect of music's pow'r!) 
Messiah's eulogy, for Handel's sake. 
But less, methinks, than sacrilege might serve —
(For was it less? What heathen would have dared
[Page 264]640  To strip Jove's statue of his oaken wreath
And hang it up in honor of a man!) 
Much less might serve, when all that we design
Is but to gratify an itching ear,
And give the day to a musician's praise. 
Remember Handel? who that was not born
Deaf as the dead to harmony, forgets,
Or can, the more than Homer of his age? 
Yes — we remember him. And while we praise
A talent so divine, remember too
That His most holy book from whom it came
Was never meant, was never used before
To buckram out the mem'ry of a man. 
But hush! — the muse perhaps is too severe,
And with a gravity beyond the size
And measure of th' offence, rebukes a deed
Less impious than absurd, and owing more
To want of judgment than to wrong design. 
So in the chapel of old Ely House,
When wand'ring Charles, who meant to be the third,
[Page 265]660  Had fled from William, and the news was fresh,
The simple clerk but loyal, did announce,
And eke did rear right merrily, two staves,
Sung to the praise and glory of King George. 
— Man praises man, and Garrick's mem'ry next,
When time hath somewhat mellow'd it, and made
The idol of our worship while he lived,
The God of our idolatry once more,
Shall have its altar; and the world shall go
In pilgrimage to bow before his shrine. 
The theatre too small, shall suffocate
Its squeezed contents, and more than it admits
Shall sigh at their exclusion, and return
Ungratified. For there some noble lord
Shall stuff his shoulders with king Richard's bunch,
Or wrap himself in Hamlet's inky cloak,
And strut, and storm and straddle, stamp and stare,
The show the world how Garrick did not act. 
For Garrick was a worshipper himself;
He drew the Liturgy, and framed the rites
[Page 266]680  And solemn ceremonial of the day,
And call'd the world to worship on the banks
Of Avon famed in song. Ah pleasant proof! 
That piety has still in human hearts
Some place, a spark or two not yet extinct. 
The mulb'ry tree was hung with blooming wreaths,
The mulb'ry tree stood center of the dance,
The mulb'ry tree was hymn'd with dulcet airs,
And from his touchwood trunk, the mulb'ry tree
Supplied such relics, as devotion holds
Still sacred, and preserves with pious care. 
So 'twas an hallow'd time. Decorum reign'd,
And mirth without offence. No few return'd
Doubtless much edified, and all refreshed. 
— Man praises man. The rabble all alive,
From tipling-benches, cellars, stalls, and styes,
Swarm in the streets. The statesman of the day,
A pompous and slow-moving pageant comes. 
Some shout him, and some hang upon his car
To gaze in's eyes and bless him. Maidens wave
[Page 267]700  Their 'kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy. 
While others not so satisfied unhorse
The gilded equipage, and turning loose
His streeds, usurp a place they well deserve. 
Why? what has charm'd them? Hath he saved the state
No. Doth he purpose its salvation? No.
Inchanting novelty, that moon at full,
That finds out ev'ry crevice of the head
That is not sound and perfect, hath in theirs
Wrought this disturbance. But the wane is near,
And his own cattle must suffice him soon. 
Thus idly do we waste the breath of praise,
And dedicate a tribute, in its use
And just direction, sacred, to a thing
Doomed to the dust, or lodged already there. 
Encomium in old time was poet's work. 
But poets having lavishly long since
Exhausted all materials of the art,
The task now falls into the public hand. 
And I, contented with an humble theme,
[Page 268]720  Have poured my stream of panegyric down
The vale of nature, where it creeps and winds
Among her lovely works, with a secure
And unambitious course, reflecting clear
If not the virtues yet the worth of brutes,
And I am recompensed, and deem the toils
Of poetry not lost, if verse of mine
May stand between an animal and woe,
And teach one tyrant pity for his drudge. 

The groans of nature in this nether world
Which heav'n has heard for ages, have an end. 
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung
Whose fire was kindled at the prophets lamp,
The time of rest, the promised sabbath comes. 
Six thousand years of sorrow have well-nigh
Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world. And what remains
Of this tempestuous state of human things,
Is merely as the working of a sea
[Page 269]739  Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest. 
For he whose car the winds are, and the clouds
The dust that waits upon his sultry march
When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot,
Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitious, in his chariot paved with love,
And what his storms have blasted and defaced
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair. 

Sweet is the harp of prophesy. Too sweet
Not to be wrong'd by a mere mortal touch;
Nor can the wonders it records, be sung
To meaner music, and not suffer loss. 
But when a poet, or when one like me,
Happy to rove among poetic flow'rs
Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at last
On some fair theme, some theme divinely fair,
Such is the impulse and the spur he feels
To give it praise proportioned to its worth,
[Page 270]757  That not t' attempt it, arduous as he deems
The labor, were a task more arduous still. 

Oh scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplish'd bliss! which who can see
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul refresh'd with foretaste of the joy? 
Rivers of gladness water all the earth,
And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
Of barreness is past. The fruitful field
Laughs with abundance, and the land once lean,
Or fertile only in its own disgrace,
Exults to see its thistly curse repealed. 
The various seasons woven into one,
And that one season an eternal spring,
The garden fears no blight, and needs no fence
For there is none to covet, all are full. 
The lion and the libbard and the bear
Graze with the fearless siocks. All bask at noon
Together, or all gambol in the shade
[Page 271]776  Of the same grove, and drink one common stream. 
Antipathies are none. No foe to man
Lurks in the serpent now. The mother sees
And smiles to see her infant's playful hand
Stretch'd forth to dally with the crested worm,
To stroak his azure neck, or to receive
The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue. 
All creatures worship man, and all mankind
One Lord, one Father. Error has no place;
That creeping pestilence is driv'n away,
The breath of heav'n has chased it. In the heart
No passion touches a discordant string,
But all is harmony and love. Disease
Is not. The pure and uncontaminate blood
Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age. 
One song employs all nations, and all cry
"Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us"
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Shout to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the flying joy,
[Page 272]796  'Till nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous Hosanna round. 
Behold the measure of the promise filled,
See Salem built, the labour of a God!
Bright as a sun the sacred city shines;
All kingdoms and all princes of the earth
Flock to that light; the glory of all lands
Flows into her, unbounded is her joy
And endless her encrease. Thy rams are there
** Nebaioth and Kedar the sons of Ishamael and progenitors of the Arabs, in the prophetic scripture here alluded to, may be reasonably considered as representatives of the Gentiles at large.
Nebaioth,andtheflocksofKedarthere;
The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind,
And Saba's spicey groves pay tribute there. 
Praise is in all her gates. Upon her walls,
And in her streets, and in her spacious courts
Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there
Kneels with the native of the farthest West,
[Page 273]812  And Aethiopia spreads abroad the hand
And worships. Her report has travell'd forth
Into all lands. From every clime they come
To see thy beauty and to share thy joy
O Sion! an assembly such as earth
Saw never, such as heav'n stoops down to see. 

Thus heav'n-ward all things tend. For all were once
Perfect, and all must be at length restored. 
So God has greatly purposed; who would else
In his dishonoured works himself endure
Dishonor, and be wrong'd without redress. 
Haste then, and wheel away a shatter'd world
Ye slow-revolving seasons! we would see,
(A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet)
A world that does not dread and hate his laws,
And suffer for its crime. Would learn how fair
The creature is that God pronounces good,
How pleasant in itself what pleases him. 
Here ev'ry drop of honey hides a sting,
Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flow'rs,
[Page 274]832  And ev'n the joy that haply some poor heart
Derives from heav'n, pure as the fountain is
Is sullied in the stream; taking a taint
From touch of human lips, at best impure. 
Oh for a world in principle as chaste
As this is gross and selfish! over which
Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway
That govern all things here, should'ring aside
The meek and modest truth, and forcing her
To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife
In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men. 
Where violence shall never lift the sword,
Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong,
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears. 
Where he that fills an office, shall esteem
Th' occasion it presents of doing good
More than the perquisite. Where law shall speak
Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts
And equity; not jealous more to guard
A worthless form, than to decide aright. 
[Page 275]852 Where fashion shall not sanctify abuse,
Nor smooth good-breeding (supplemental grace)
With lean performance ape the work of love. 

Come then, and added to thy many crowns
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! it was thine
By antient covenant 'ere nature's birth,
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood. 
Thy saints proclaim thee king; and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipt in the fountain of eternal love. 
Thy saints proclaim thee king; and thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see
The dawn of thy last advent long-desired,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills,
And flee for safety to the falling rocks. 
The very spirit of the world is tired
Of its own taunting question ask'd so long,
[Page 276]871  "Where is the promise of your Lord's approach?"
The infidel has shot his bolts away,
'Till his exhausted quiver yielding none,
He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoiled,
And aims them at the shield of truth again. 
The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,
That hides divinity from mortal eyes,
And all the mysteries to faith proposed
Insulted and traduced, are cast aside
As useless, to the moles and to the bats. 
They now are deem'd the faithful and are praised,
Who constant only in rejecting thee,
Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal,
And quit their office for their errors sake. 
Blind and in love with darkness! yet ev'n these
Worthy, compared with sycophants, who knee
Thy name, adoring, and then preach thee man. 
So fares thy church. But how thy church may fare
The world takes little thought; who will may preach,
And what they will. All pastors are alike
[Page 277]891  To wand'ring sheep, resolved to follow none. 
Two gods divide them all, pleasure and gain. 
For these they live, they sacrifice to these,
And in their service wage perpetual war
With conscience and with thee. Lust in their hearts,
And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth
To prey upon each other; stubborn, fierce,
High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace. 
Thy prophets speak of such; and noting down
The features of the last degen'rate times,
Exhibit ev'ry lineament of these. 
Come then, and added to thy many crowns
Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,
Due to thy last and most effectual work,
Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world. 

He is the happy man, whose life ev'n now
Shows somewhat of that happier life to come. 
Who doomed to an obscure but tranquil state
Is pleased with it, and were he free to chuse,
[Page 278]910  Would make his fate his choice. Whom peace, the fruit
Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith,
Prepare for happiness; bespeak him one
Content indeed to sojourn while he must
Below the skies, but having there his home. 
The world o'erlooks him in her busy search
Of objects more illustrious in her view;
And occupied as earnestly as she
Though more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world. 
She scorns his pleasures, for she knows them not;
He seeks not hers, for he has proved them vain. 
He cannot skim the ground like summer birds
Pursuing gilded flies, and such he deems
Her honors, her emoluments, her joys. 
Therefore in contemplation is his bliss,
Whose pow'r is such, that whom she lifts from earth
She makes familiar with a heav'n unseen,
And shows him glories yet to be revealed. 
Not slothful he, though seeming unemployed,
And censured oft as useless. Stillest streams
[Page 279]930  Oft water fairest meadows, and the bird
That flutters least, is longest on the wing. 
Ask him indeed, what trophies he has raised,
Or what atchievements of immortal fame
He purposes, and he shall answer — none. 
His warfare is within. There unfatigued
His fervent spirit labors. There he fights,
And there obtains fresh triumphs o'er himself,
And never-with'ring wreaths, compared with which
The laurels that a Caesar reaps are weeds. 
Perhaps the self-approving haughty world
That as she sweeps him with her whistling silks
Scarce deigns to notice him, or if she see
Deems him a cypher in the works of God,
Receives advantage from his noiseless hours
Of which she little dreams. Perhaps she owes
Her sunshine and her rain, her blooming spring
And plenteous harvest, to the pray'r he makes,
When Isaac like, the solitary saint
Walks forth to meditate at even-tide,
[Page 280]950  And think on her, who thinks not for herself. 
Forgive him then, thou bustler in concerns
Of little worth, and idler in the best,
If author of no mischief and some good,
He seek his proper happiness by means
That may advance, but cannot hinder thine. 
Nor though he tread the secret path of life,
Engage no notice, and enjoy much ease,
Account him an incumbrance on the state,
Receiving benefits, and rend'ring none. 
His sphere though humble, if that humble sphere
Shine with his fair example, and though small
His influence, if that influence all be spent
In soothing sorrow and in quenching strife,
In aiding helpless indigence, in works
From which at least a grateful few derive
Some taste of comfort in a world of woe,
Then let the supercilious great confess
He serves his country; recompenses well
The state beneath the shadow of whose vine
[Page 281]970  He sits secure, and in the scale of life
Holds no ignoble, though a slighted place. 
The man whose virtues are more felt than seen,
Must drop indeed the hope of public praise,
But he may boast what few that win it can,
That if his country stand not by his skill,
At least his follies have not wrought her fall. 
Polite refinement offers him in vain
Her golden tube, through which a sensual world
Draws gross impurity, and likes it well,
The neat conveyance hiding all th' offence. 
Not that he peevishly rejects a mode
Because that world adopts it. If it bear
The stamp and clear impression of good sense,
And be not costly more than of true worth,
He puts it on, and for decorum sake
Can wear it e'en as gracefully as she. 
She judges of refinement by the eye,
He by the test of conscience, and a heart
Not soon deceived; aware that what is base
[Page 282]990  No polish can make sterling, and that vice
Though well perfumed and elegantly dress'd,
Like an unburied carcase trick'd with flow'rs
Is but a garnish'd nuisance, fitter far
For cleanly riddance than for fair attire. 
So life glides smoothly and by stealth away,
More golden than that age of fabled gold
Renown'd in ancient song; not vex'd with care
Or stained with guilt, beneficent, approved
Of God and man, and peaceful in its end. 
So glide my life away! and so at last
My share of duties decently fulfilled,
May some disease, not tardy to perform
Its destin'd office, yet with gentle stroke,
Dismiss me weary to a safe retreat
Beneath the turf that I have often trod. 
It shall not grieve me, then, that once when called
To dress a Sofa with the flow'rs of verse,
I play'd awhile, obedient to the fair
With that light task, but soon to please her more
[Page 283]1010  Whom flow'rs alone I knew would little please,
Let fall th' unfinish'd wreath, and roved for fruit. 
Roved far and gather'd much. Some harsh, 'tis true,
Pick'd from the thorns and briars of reproof,
But wholesome, well-digested. Grateful some
To palates that can taste immortal truth,
Insipid else, and sure to be despised. 
But all is in his hand whose praise I seek. 
In vain the poet sings, and the world hears,
If he regard not, though divine the theme. 
'Tis not in artful measures, in the chime
And idle tinkling of a minstrel's lyre
To charm his ear, whose eye is on the heart. 
Whose frown can disappoint the proudest strain,
Whose approbation — prosper even mine. 

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Title (in Source Edition): [THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.] BOOK VI.

Author: William Cowper

Themes: domestic life; family; rural life; patriotism

Genres: blank verse; narrative verse; georgic; philosophic poetry

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Source edition

Cowper, William, 1731-1800. The task: a poem, in six books. By William Cowper, ... To which are added, by the same author, An epistle to Joseph Hill, Esq. ... To which are added, ... an epistle ... and the history of John Gilpin. London: printed for J. Johnson, 1785, pp. [229]-283. [8],359,[1]p. ; 8⁰. (ESTC T14896; OTA K027776.000)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Secondary literature

Griffin, Dustin. Redefining Georgic: Cowper's Task. ELH 57 (1990): 565-79. Print.
Matheson, Ann. The Influence of Cowper's The Task on Coleridge's Conversational Poems. Sultana, Donald, ed. New Approaches to Coleridge. London: Vision, 1981. 137-50. Print.
Priestman, Martin. Cowper's Task: Structure and Influence. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Print.

[THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.]

ARGUMENT of the SIXTH BOOK.

BOOK VI.

THE WINTER WALK AT NOON.

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Other works by William Cowper

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[THE TASK, A POEM, IN SIX BOOKS.]

ARGUMENT of the SIXTH BOOK.

BOOK VI.

THE WINTER WALK AT NOON.

Text

About this text

Source edition

Editorial principles

Secondary literature

Related works

Other works by William Cowper

Phonological layer

Morphological layer

Syntactic layer

Semantic layer

Pragmatic layer