ARGUMENT OF THE FIFTH BOOK. 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. THE TASK. BOOK V. THE WINTER MORNING WALK. "TIS Is morning; and the sun, with ruddy orb Ascending, fires th' 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 Slides ineffectual down the snowy vale, And, tinging all with his own rosy hue, Provokes me to a smile. With eye askance I view the muscular proportion'd limb Transform'd to a lean shank. The shapeless pair, And patient of the slow-pac'd swain's delay. He from the stack carves out th' accustom'd load, Deep-plunging, and again deep-plunging oft, His broad keen knife into the solid mass: Smooth as a wall the upright remnant stands, With such undeviating and even force He severs it away: no needless care, Lest storms should overset the leaning pile Shaggy, and lean, and shrewd, with pointed ears Moves right toward the mark; nor stops for aught, |