ARGUMENT OF THE SECOND BOOK. Reflections fuggefted by the conclufion of the former book. Peace among the nations recommended, on the ground o their common fellowship in forrow.-Prodigies enume rated.-Sicilian earthquakes.-Man rendered obnox ious to thefe calamities by fin.-God the agent in them.The philofophy that flops at fecondary caufes reproved. Our own late mifcarriages accounted for.-Satirical no tice taken of our trips to Fountainbleau.-But the pulpit not fatire, the proper engine of reformation.-The Re verend Advertifer of engraved fermons.-Petit-maitr parfon.-The good preacher.-Pictures of a theatri edl clerical coxcomb.-Story-tellers and jeflers in the pulpit reproved.-Apoftrophe to popular applause.Retailers of ancient philosophy expoflulated with.—Sum of the whole matter.-Effects of facerdotal mifmanage ment on the laity.-Their folly and extravagance.The mischiefs of profusion.—Profufion itself, with all its confequent evils, afcribed, as to its principal caufe to the want of difcipline in the univerfities. THE TASK. BOOK II. THE TIME-PIECE. OH for a lodge in fome vaft wilderness, Might never reach me more. My ear is pain'd, Of wrong T'enforce the wrong, for fuch a worthy cause Το carry me, to fan me while I fleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That finews bought and fold have ever earn'd. No: dear as freedom is, and in my heart's Just estimation priz'd above all price, I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. We have no flaves at home-Then why abroad? And they themselves, once ferried o'er the wave That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd. Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Sure there is need of focial intercourse, Benevolence, and peace, and mutual aid, Between the nations, in a world that seems To toll the death-bell of its own decease, And by the voice of all its elements To preach the gen'ral doom*. When were the winds When did the waves fo haughtily o'erleap Have kindled beacons in the fkies; and th' old VOL. II. * Alluding to the calamities at Jamaica. E |