ARGUMENT OF THE SIXTH BOOK. - Bells at a distance. Their effect.-A fine noon in winter.-A sheltered walk.-Meditation better than books.—Our familiarity with the course of nature makes it appear less wonderful than it is.—The transformation that spring effects in a shrubbery described. A mistake concerning the course of nature corrected.-God maintains it by an unremitted act. -The amusements fashionable at this hour of the day reproved.-Animals happy, a delightful sight.Origin of cruelty to animals.-That it is a great crime proved from scripture.-That proof illustrated by a tale.-A line drawn between the lawful and unlawful destruction of them.-Their good and useful properties insisted on.-Apology for the encomiums bestowed by the author on animals. — Instances of man's extravagant praise of man.-The groans of the creation shall have an end.—A view taken of the restoration of all things.—An invocation and an invitation of him who shall bring it to pass.-The retired man vindicated from the charge of uselessness. Conclusion. THE TASK. BOOK VI. THE WINTER WALK AT NOON. THERE is in souls a sympathy with sounds; Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies. In cadence sweet, now dying all away, Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on! Where mem'ry slept. Wherever I have heard And with it all its pleasures and its pains. Such comprehensive views the spirit takes, (As in a map the voyager his course) The windings of my way through many years. It seem'd not always short; the rugged path, We miss'd that happiness we might have found! Some friend is gone, perhaps his son's best friend! A father, whose authority in show When most severe, and must'ring all its force, Was but the graver countenance of love; Whose favour, like the clouds of spring, might low'r, And utter now and then an awful voice, But had a blessing in its darkest frown, His shelt❜ring side, and wilfully forewent And makes the world the wilderness it is. |