WILLIAM COWPER. 1731 - 1800.

United yet divided, twain at once.

So sit two kings of Brentford on one throne.1 The Task. Book i. The Sofa. Line 77.

Nor rural sights alone, but,rural sounds,

Exhilarate the spirit, and restore

The tone of languid nature.

Ibid. Line 181.

The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change,
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.
Ibid. Line 506.

God made the country, and man made the town.2
Ibid. Line 749.

O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

Might never reach me more.

Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 1.

Mountains interpos'd

Make enemies of nations who had else,

Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.

Ibid. Line 17.

Two Kings of Brentford, from Buckingham's play of The Rehearsal.

2 Compare Bacon, Essays. Of Gardens.

3 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men. — Jeremiah ix. 2.

I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.
The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 29.

Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country and their shackles fall.' Ibid. Line 40.

England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country! 2

Ibid. Line 206.

Presume to lay their hand upon the ark

Of her magnificent and awful cause.

Praise enough

Ibid. Line 231.

To fill the ambition of a private man,

That Chatham's language was his mother-tongue.

Ibid. Line 235.

There is a pleasure in poetic pains

Which only poets know.3

Ibid. Line 285.

Transforms old print

To zigzag manuscript, and cheats the eyes

Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.

Ibid. Line 363.

1 Servi peregrini, ut primum Galliæ fines penetraverint eodem momento liberi sunt. - Bodinus, Liber i. c. 5. 2 Compare Churchill, The Farewell.

& Compare Dryden, Spanish Friar, Act ii. Sc. I.

Reading what they never wrote, Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene. The Task. Book ii. The Timepiece. Line 411. Whoe'er was edified, themselves were not.

Variety 's the very spice of life,

That gives it all its flavour.

She that asks

Ibid. Line 444.

Ibid. Line 606.

Her dear five hundred friends. Ibid. Line 642.

Domestic Happiness, thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has surviv'd the fall!

Book iii. The Garden. Line 41.

Great contest follows, and much learned dust.

Ibid. Line 161.

From reveries so airy, from the toil

Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.

Ibid. Line 188.

How various his employments, whom the world
Calls idle; and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!

Ibid. Line 352.

Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too. Ibid. Line 566.

I burn to set the imprison'd wranglers free, And give them voice and utterance once again. Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round,

And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,1 That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

The Task. Book iv. Winter Evening. Line 34. Which not even critics criticise.

Ibid. Line 51.

And Katerfelto, with his hair on end

At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
'Tis pleasant, through the loop-holes of retreat,
To peep at such a world, - to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.
Ibid. Line 86.

While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.

Ibid. Line 118.

O Winter, ruler of the inverted year.

Ibid. Line 120.

With spots quadrangular of diamond form, Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife, And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.

1 Compare Bishop Berkeley, Siris, ante, p. 273.

2 It was Cowper who gave this now common name to

the Mignonette.

Silently as a dream the fabric rose,

No sound of hammer or of saw was there.1
The Task. Book v. Winter Morning Walk. Line 144.

But war's a game which, were their subjects wise, Kings would not play at.

The beggarly last doit.

Ibid. Line 187.

Ibid. Line 316.

As dreadful as the Manichean god,

Adored through fear, strong only to destroy. Ibid. Line 444.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free. Ibid. Line 733.

With filial confidence inspired,

Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And smiling say, "My Father made them all!" Ibid. Line 745.

Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.

Ibid. Last lines.

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitch'd, the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.

1 No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung.
Heber, Palestine.

So that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. -1 Kings vi. 7.