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THE TASK,

A POEM.

BOOK I.

ARGUMENT OF THE FIRST BOOK.

Historical deduction of seats, from the stool to the Sofa.-A School-boy's ramble.-A walk in the country. The scene described-Rural sounds as well as sights delightful.-Another walk.-Mistake concerning the charms of solitude corrected.-Colonnades commended.-Alcove, and the view from it.The wilderness.-The grove.-The thresher.-The necessity and the benefits of exercise.-The works of nature superior to, and in some instances inimitable by, art.-The wearisomeness of what is commonly called a life of pleasure.-Change of scene sometimes expedient.-A common described, and the character of crazy Kate introduced.-Gipsies.-The blessings of civilized life.-That state most favourable to virtue. The South Sea islanders compassionated, but chiefly Omai.-His present state of mind supposed.-Civilized life friendly to virtue, but not great cities. Great cities, and London in particular, allowed their due praise, but censured.Fete champetre.-The book concludes with a reflection on the fatal effects of dissipation and effeminacy upon our public measures.

THE

THE TASK.

BOOK I.

THE SOFA.

I

SING the Sofa. I, who lately fang

Truth, Hope, and Charity *, and touched with awe
The folemn chords, and with a trembling hand,
Escaped with pain from that adventurous flight,
Now feek repose upon an humbler theme;
The theme though humble, yet auguft and proud
The occafion-for the Fair commands the fong.

Time was, when clothing sumptuous or for use, Save their own painted skins, our fires had none. As yet black breeches were not; satin smooth,

Or velvet foft, or plush with shaggy pile:

*See Poems, vol. i.

The hardy chief upon the rugged rock
Washed by the fea, or on the gravelly bank
Thrown up by wintry torrents roaring loud,
Fearless of wrong, repofed his weary ftrength.
Those barbarous ages paft, fucceeded next
The birth-day of invention; weak at firft,
Dull in defign, and clumsy to perform.
Joint-ftools were then created; on three legs
Upborne they ftood. Three legs upholding firm
A maffy flab, in fashion square or round.
On fuch a ftool immortal Alfred fat,

And fwayed the fceptre of his infant realms :
And fuch in ancient halls and manfions drear
May ftill be seen; but perforated fore,

And drilled in holes, the folid oak is found,
By worms voracious eating through and through.

At length a generation more refined

Improved the fimple plan; made three legs four,
Gave them a twisted form vermicular,

And over the feat, with plenteous wadding ftuffed,
Induced a fplendid cover, green and blue,
Yellow and red, of tapestry richly wrought
And woven close, or needle-work fublime.
There might ye fee the piony spread wide,
The full-blown rofe, the shepherd and his lass,

.

Lap-dog and lambkin with black staring eyes,
And parrots with twin cherries in their beak.

Now came the cane from India smooth and bright
With Nature's varnish; fevered into stripes,
That interlaced each other, these supplied
Of texture firm a lattice-work, that braced
The new machine, and it became a chair.
But reftless was the chair; the back erect
Diftreffed the weary loins, that felt no ease;
The flippery feat betrayed the sliding part,
That preffed it, and the feet hung dangling down,
Anxious in vain to find the diftant floor.

These for the rich: the reft, whom fate had placed
In modeft mediocrity, content

With base materials, fat on well-tanned hides,
Obdurate and unyielding, glaffy smooth,

With here and there a tuft of crimson yarn,
Or fcarlet crewel, in the cushion fixt,

If cushion might be called, what harder feemed
Than the firm oak, of which the frame was formed.

No want of timber then was felt or feared

In Albion's happy ifle. The lumber ftood
Ponderous and fixt by its own maffy weight.
But elbows ftill were wanting; thefe, fome fay,

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