ARGUMENT OF THE SECOND BOOK, Reflections suggested by the conclusion of the former book.-Peace among the nations recommended on the ground of their common fellowship in sorrow.-Prodigies enumerated-Sicilian earthquakes.Man rendered obnoxious to these calamities by sin.-God the agent in them. The philosophy that stops at secondary causes reproved. -Our own late miscarriages accounted for.-Satirical notice taken of our trips to Fontaine-Bleau-But the pulpit, not satire, the proper engine of reformation.-The Reverend Advertiser of engraved sermons.-Petit-maitre parson.-The good preacher.-Picture of a theatrical clerical coxcomb.-Story-tellers and jesters in the pulpit / reproved.-Apostrophe to popular applause.-Retailers of ancient philosophy expostulated with.-Sum of the whole matter.-Effects of sacerdotal mismanagement on the laity-Their folly and extravagance.-The mischiefs of profusion.-Profusion itself, with all it's consequent evils, ascribed, as to it's principal cause, to the wans of discipline in the universities THE TASK. BOOK II. THE TIME-PIECE. FOR a lodge in some vast wilderness, Where rumour of oppression and deceit, Might never reach me more. My ear is pain'd, Of wrong and outrage, with which Earth is fill'd. It does not feel for man; the nat❜ral bond That falls asunder at the touch of fire. He finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not colour'd like his own; and having pow'r T'enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey, ZA .Lands intersected by a narrow frith And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth, That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd. No dear as freedom is, and in my heart's : Just estimation priz'd above all price, I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs And jealous of the blessing. Spread it then, Of all your empire; that, where Britain's pow'r Sure there is need of social intercourse, Benevolence, and peace, and mutual aid, Between the nations in a world, that seems To toll the deathbell of it's own decease, And by the voice of all it's elements To preach the gen'ral doom*. When were the winds Have kindled beacons in the skies; and th' old • Alluding to the calamities in Jamaica. August 18, 1783. ↑ Allading to the fog, that covered both Europe and Asia during the whole summer of 1783. |