THE

TA S K.

BOOK VI.

ARGUMENT OF THE SIXTH BOOK.

Bells at a distance.-Their effect.-A fine noon in winter.-A fheltered walk.-Meditation better than books. Our familiarity with the course of nature makes it appear lefs wonderful than it is.-The transformation that spring effects in a fhrubbery defcribed. A mistake concerning the course of nature corrected.-Gcd maintains it by an unremitted act. -The amufements fashionable at this hour of the day reproved. Animals happy, a delightful fight.— Origin of cruelty to animals.-That it is a great crime proved from fcripture.-That proof illuftrated by a tale.-A line drawn between the lawful and unlawful deftruction of them.-Their good and useful properties infifted on.—Apology for the encomiums bestowed by the author on animals.-Inftances of man's extravagant praife of man.-The groans of the creation fhall have an end.-A view taken of the restoration of all things.-An invocation and an invitation of him who fhall bring it to pass.-The retired man vindicated from the charge of ufeleffness.-Conclufion.

THE

TAS K.

BOOK VI.

THE WINTER WALK AT NOON.

THERE is in fouls a fympathy with founds;
And, as the mind is pitch'd, the ear is pleas'd
With melting airs, or martial, brisk, or grave:
Some chord in unifon with what we hear

Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
How foft the mufic of thofe village bells,
Falling at intervals upon the ear

In cadence fweet, now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and fonorous, as the gale comes on!
With easy force it opens all the cells

Where mem'ry flept. Wherever I have heard

A kindred melody, the scene recurs,

And with it all its pleasures and its pains.
Such comprehenfive views the spirit takes,

That in a few fhort moments I retrace
(As in a map the voyager his courfe)
The windings of my way through many years.
Short as in retrofpect the journey seems,

It feem'd not always fhort; the rugged path,
And profpect oft fo dreary and forlorn,
Mov'd many a figh at its difheart'ning length.
Yet, feeling prefent evils, while the past
Faintly impress the mind, or not at all,
How readily we wish time spent revok'd,
That we might try the ground again, where once
(Through inexperience, as we now perceive)
We mifs'd that happiness we might have found!
Some friend is gone, perhaps his fon's best friend!
A father, whofe authority, in fhow