Innocent partner of my peaceful home, Whom ten long years' experience of my care Has made at last familiar; she has lost Much of her vigilant instinctive dread, Not needful. here, beneath a roof like mine. Yes-thou mayest eat thy bread, and lick the hand That feeds thee; thou mayest frolic on the floor At evening, and at night retire secure
To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarmed; For I have gained thy confidence, have pledged All that is human in me to protect Thine unsuspecting gratitude and love. If I survive thee I will dig thy grave; And, when I place thee in it, sighing say, I knew at least one hare that had a friend*.
How various his employments, whom the world Calls idle; and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too.
Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his Delightful industry enjoyed at home, And nature in her cultivated trim Dressed to his taste, inviting him abroad- Can he want occupation who has these? Will he be idle who has much to enjoy? Me therefore studious of laborious ease, Not slothful, happy to deceive the time, Not waste it, and aware that human life Is but a loan to be repaid with use, When He shall call his debtors to account, From whom are all our blessings; business finds
* See the note at the end of this volume.
E'en here: while sedulous I seek to improve, At least neglect not, or leave unemployed, The mind he gave nie; driving it, though slack Too oft, and much impeded in its work
By causes not to be divulged in vain,
To its just point-the service of mankind. He, that attends to his interior self,
That has a heart, and keeps it; has a mind That hungers, and supplies it; and who seeks A social, not a dissipated life,
Has business; feels himself engaged to achieve No unimportant, though a silent, task. A life all turbulence and noise may seem To him that leads it wise, and to be praised; But wisdom is a pearl with most success Sought in still water, and beneath clear skies. He that is ever occupied in storms,
Or dives not for it, or brings up instead, Vainly industrious, a disgraceful prize.
The morning finds the self-sequestered man Fresh for his task, intend what task he may. Whether inclement seasons recommend His warm but simple home, where he enjoys With her, who shares his pleasures and his heart, Sweet converse, sipping calm the fragrant lymph, Which neatly she prepares; then to his book, Well chosen, and not sullenly perused In selfish silence, but imparted oft, As aught occurs, that she may smile to hear, Or turn to nourishment, digested well.
Or, if the garden, with its many cares, All well repaid, demand him, he attends
The welcome call, conscious how much the hand Of lubbard labour needs his watchful eye, Oft loitering lazily, if not o'erseen, Or misapplying his unskilful strength. Nor does he govern only or direct,
But much performs himself. No works, indeed, That ask robust tough sinews, bred to toil, Servile employ; but such as may amuse, Not tire, demanding rather skill than force. Proud of his well-spread walls, he views his trees That meet (no barren interval between)
With pleasure more than e'en their fruits afford, Which, save himself who trains them, none can feel; These therefore are his own peculiar charge; No meaner hand may discipline the shoots, None but his steel approach them. What is weak, Distempered, or has lost prolific powers, Impaired by age, his unrelenting hand
Dooms to the knife: nor does he spare the soft And succulent, that feeds its giant growth, But barren, at the expence of neighbouring twigs Less ostentatious, and yet studded thick With hopeful gems. The rest no portion left That may disgrace his art, or disappoint Large expectation, he disposes neat
At measured distances, that air and sun, Admitted freely, may afford their aid,
And ventilate and warm the swelling buds.
Hence summer has her riches, autumn hence, And hence e'en winter fills his withered hand With blushing fruits, and plenty not his own*. Fair recompense of labour well bestowed, And wise precaution; which a clime so rude Makes needful still, whose spring is but the child Of churlish winter, in her froward moods Discovering much the temper of her sire, For oft, as if in her the stream of mild Maternal nature had reversed its course, She brings her infants forth with many smiles; But once delivered kills them with a frown. He therefore timely warned himself supplies Her want of care, screening and keeping warm The plenteous bloom, that no rough blast may sweep His garlands from the boughs. Again, as oft As the sun peeps and vernal airs breathe mild, The fence withdrawn, he gives them every beam, And spreads his hopes before the blaze of day. To raise the prickly and green coated gourd, So grateful to the palate, and when rare So coveted, else base and disesteemed- Food for the vulgar merely—is an art That toiling ages have but just matured, And at this moment unessayed in song. Yet gnats have had, and frogs and mice, long since, Their eulogy; those sang the Mantuan bard, And these the Grecian, in ennobling strains;
* Miraturque novos fructus et non sua poma. VIRG.
And in thy numbers, Phillips, shines for aye The solitary shilling. Pardon then, Ye sage dispensers of poetic fame,
The ambition of one meaner far, whose powers, Presuming an attempt not less sublime, Pant for the praise of dressing to the taste Of critic appetite, no sordid fare, A cucumber, while costly yet and scarce. The stable yields a stercoraceous heap, Impregnated with quick fermenting salts, And potent to resist the freezing blast: For, ere the beech and elm have cast their leaf Deciduous, when now November dark Checks vegetation in the torpid plant Exposed to his cold breath, the task begins. Warily therefore and with prudent heed He seeks a favoured spot; that where he builds The agglomerated pile his frame may front The sun's meridian disk, and at the back Enjoy close shelter, wall, or reeds, or hedge Impervious to the wind. First he bids spread Dry fern or littered hay, that may imbibe The ascending damps; then leisurely impose, And lightly, shaking it with agile hand From the full fork, the saturated straw. What longest binds the closest forms secure The shapely side, that as it rises takes, By just degrees, an overhanging breadth, Sheltering the base with its projected eaves; The uplifted frame, compact at every joint,
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