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

The Task. Book iii. The Garden, Line 352.

Who loves a garden loves a greenhouse too.
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
That cheer but not inebriate wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in.

Line 566.

Book iv. The Winter Evening. Line 34

Which not even critics criticise.

What is it but a map of busy life,

Its fluctuations, and its vast concerns?

And Katerfelto, with his hair on end

- to see the stir

At his own wonders, wondering for his bread.
"T is pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat,
To peep at such a world,
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.
While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.
O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!?

Line 51.

Line 55.

Line 86.

Line 118.

Line 120.

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

Line 217.

Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.

The Task. Book iv. The Winter Evening, Line 510.

Those golden times

And those Arcadian scenes that Maro sings,
And Sidney, warbler of poetic prose.

The Frenchman's darling.1

Some must be great. Great offices will have
Great talents. And God gives to every man
The virtue, temper, understanding, taste,
That lifts him into life, and lets him fall
Just in the niche he was ordain'd to fill.
Silently as a dream the fabric rose,

No sound of hammer or of saw was there."

Line 514.

Line 765.

Line 788,

Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 144

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

Line 187.

The beggarly last doit.

Line 316.

As dreadful as the Manichean god,

Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.

Line 444.

He is the freeman whom the truth makes free.

Line 733.

With filial confidence inspired,

Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say, My Father made them all!

Line 745.

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

There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased

Line 905.

1 It was Cowper who gave this now common name to the mignonette. 2 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.

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.
How soft the music of those village bells
Falling at intervals upon the ear

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.

Line 96.

Some to the fascination of a name
Surrender judgment hoodwink'd.

I would not enter on my list of friends

Line 101.

(Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense,

Yet wanting sensibility) the man

Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An honest man, close-button'd to the chin,
Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within.

Line 560.

Epistle to Joseph Hill.

Shine by the side of every path we tread
With such a lustre, he that runs may read.1

Tirocinium. Line 79.

What peaceful hours I once enjoy'd!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.

And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

Walking with God.

Exhortation to Prayer.

1 Write the vision, and make it plain, upon tables, that he may run that

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Light shining out of Darkness.

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a shining face.

Beware of desperate steps! The darkest day,
Live till to-morrow, will have pass'd away.

Ibid.

The Needless Alarm. Moral.

Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass'd
With me but roughly since I heard thee last.

On the Receipt of my Mother's Picture.

The son of parents pass'd into the skies.

The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves, by thumping on your back,1
His sense of your great merit,2

Is such a friend that one had need

Ibid.

On Friendship

Stanzas subjoined to a Bill of Mortality.

The brave that are no more!

All sunk beneath the wave,

Fast by their native shore!

On the Loss of the Royal George.

There is a bird who by his coat,

And by the hoarseness of his note,

Might be supposed a crow.

The Jackdaw. (Translation from Vincent Bourne.

1 See Young, page 312.

2 Var. How he esteems your merit.

The Jackdaw. (Translation from Vincent Bourne.)

For 't is a truth well known to most,

That whatsoever thing is lost,

We seek it, ere it come to light,

In every cranny but the right.

He that holds fast the golden mean,1

And lives contentedly between

The little and the great,

The Retired Cat.

Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,

Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door.

Translation of Horace. Book ii. Ode z.

But strive still to be a man before your mother."

Connoisseur. Motto of No.

Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam! afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the field of air.

The Botanic Garden. Part i. Canto i. Line 289.

No radiant pearl which crested Fortune wears,
No gem that twinkling hangs from Beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which Night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising suns that gild the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that flows
Down Virtue's manly cheek for others' woes.

Part ii. Canto iii. Line 459

1 Keep the golden mean.
PUBLIUS SYRUS: Maxim 1072.
2 See Beaumont and Fletcher, page 199.