Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known,
Defacing first, then claiming for his own.1

The Apology. Line 232.

No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours and excise our brains. Night. Line 271.

Apt alliteration 's artful aid.

The Prophecy of Famine. Line 86. There webs were spread of more than common size, And half-starved spiders prey'd on half-starved flies. With curious art the brain, too finely wrought, Preys on herself, and is destroyed by thought.

Line 327.

Epistle to William Hogarth. Line 645.

Men the most infamous are fond of fame,
And those who fear not guilt yet start at shame.

Be England what she will,

The Author. Line 233.

With all her faults she is my country still.2

The Farewell. Line 27.

Wherever waves can roll, and winds can blow.

Line 38.

WILLIAM COWPER. 1731-1800.

Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.

Line 173.

As if the world and they were hand and glove.

Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose.

Line 246.

1 Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children, -disguise them to make 'em pass for their own. - SHERIDAN: The Critic, act i. sc. i.

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

COWPER: The Task, book ii. The Timepiece, line 206. 3 Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam. - BYRON: The Corsair, canto i. stanza 1.

Freedom has a thousand charms to show,
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.
Table Talk. Line 260.

Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ,
The substitute for genius, sense, and wit.
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd,
And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard:
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.
Elegant as simplicity, and warm

Line 542.

Line 556.

Nature, exerting an unwearied power,
Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower;
Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads
The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads.
Lights of the world, and stars of human race.

Line 690.

The Progress of Error. Line 97.

How much a dunce that has been sent to roam
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home!
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew.

The sounding jargon of the schools.2

Line 415.

Truth. Line 327.

When one that holds communion with the skies
Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise,
And once more mingles with us meaner things,
"T is e'en as if an angel shook his wings.

Line 367.

Charity. Line 435.

A fool must now and then be right by chance.

1 See Pope, page 314.
2 See Prior, page 287.

Conversation. Line 96.

He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.

Conversation. Line 121.

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me, and no other can.

Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys:
Thy worst effect is banishing for hours
The sex whose presence civilizes ours.

I cannot talk with civet in the room,
A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.
The solemn fop; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge.1
His wit invites you by his looks to come,
But when you knock, it never is at home.2
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,
Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.

Line 193.

Line 251.

Line 283.

Line 299.

Line 303.

8

Line 357.

Line 443.

That good diffused may more abundant grow.
A business with an income at its heels
Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.

Absence of occupation is not rest,

Retirement. Line 614.

A mind quite vacant is a mind distress'd.

Line 623.

An idler is a watch that wants both hands,
As useless if it goes as if it stands.

Line 681.

Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn.

Line 688.

1 See Pope, page 331.

2 See Pope, page 336.

3 See Butler, page 213.

The story of a lamp which was supposed to have burned about fifteen hundred years in the sepulchre of Tullia, the daughter of Cicero, is told by Pancirollus and others.

Philologists, who chase

A panting syllable through time and space,
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark.

Retirement. Line 691.

I praise the Frenchman,1 his remark was shrewd,
How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet.

A kick that scarce would move a horse
May kill a sound divine.

The Yearly Distress.

My right there is none to dispute.

Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.

But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard;
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.

How fleet is a glance of the mind!

Compared with the speed of its flight
The tempest itself lags behind,

And the swift-winged arrows of light.
There
goes the parson, O illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.

Ibid.

Ibid.

On observing some Names of Little Note.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail

To reach the distant coast;

The breath of heaven must swell the sail,

Or all the toil is lost.

Human Frailty.

And the tear that is wiped with a little address,
May be follow'd perhaps by a smile.

1 La Bruyère.

The Rose.

"T is Providence alone secures

In every change both mine and yours.

I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
If birds confabulate or no.

Misses! the tale that I relate

A Fable. Moral.

Pairing Time Anticipated.

This lesson seems to carry,
Choose not alone a proper mate,
But proper time to marry.

That though on pleasure she was bent,

She had a frugal mind.

A hat not much the worse for wear.

Ibid.

History of John Gilpin.

Ibid.

Now let us sing, Long live the king!

And Gilpin, Long live he!

And when he next doth ride abroad,
May I be there to see!

The path of sorrow, and that path alone,
Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.

Ibid.

To an Afflicted Protestant Lady.

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.

Line 181.

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

Line 506.

Doing good,

Disinterested good, is not our trade.

Line 673.

God made the country, and man made the town.2

Line 749.

1 BUCKINGHAM: The Rehearsal (the two Kings of Brentford).

2 See Bacon, page 167.