To ill-got wealth: rather from door to door
A jocund pilgrim, though distress'd, he'll rove,
Than break his plighted faith: nor fear nor hope
Will shock his stedfast soul: rather debarred
Each common privilege, cut off from hopes
Of meanest gain, of present goods despoil'd,
He'll bear the marks of infamy contemn'd,
Unpitied; yet his mind, of evil pure,
Supports him, and intention free from fraud.
If no retinue with observant eyes

Attend him, if he can't with purple stain
Of cumbrous vestments labour'd o'er with gold,
Dazzle the crowd and set them all agape,
Yet, clad in homely weeds, from Envy's darts
Remote he lives, nor knows the nightly pangs
Of conscience, nor of spectres' grisly forms,
Demons, and injured souls, at close of day
Annoy'd, sad interrupted slumbers finds;
But (as a child whose inexperienced age
Nor evil purpose fears nor knows) enjoys
Night's sweet refreshment, humid sleep sincere.
When chanticleer with clarion shrill recalls
The tardy day he to his labours hies

Gladsome, intent on somewhat that may ease
Unhealthy mortals, and with curious search
Examines all the properties of herbs,

Fossils, and minerals, that the' embowell'd earth
Displays, if by his industry he can

Benefit human race; or else his thoughts

Are exercised with speculations deep,

[rules

Of good, and just, and meet, and the' wholesome
Of temperance, and aught that may improve
The moral life; not sedulous to rail,

Nor with envenom'd tongue to blast the fame

Of harmless men, or secret whispers spread
'Mong faithful friends, to breed distrust and hate:
Studious of virtue, he no life observes
Except his own; his own employs his cares,
Large subject; that he labours to refine
Daily, nor of his little stock denies

Fit alms to lazars, merciful and meek.

Thus sacred Virgil lived, from courtly vice
And baits of pompous Rome secure, at court
Still thoughtful of the rural honest life,
And how to improve his grounds, and how himself:
Best poet! fit exemplar for the tribe

Of Phoebus, nor less fit Mæonides,
Poor eyeless pilgrim! and if after these,
If after these another I may name,

Thus tender Spenser lived, with mean repast
Content, depress'd by penury, and pined
In foreign realm, yet not debased his verse
By Fortune's frowns. And had that other bard3,
Oh! had but he, that first ennobled song
With holy rapture, like his Abdiel been,
'Mong many faithless, strictly faithful found,
Unpitied he should not have wail'd his orbs,
That roll'd in vain, to find the piercing ray,
And found no dawn, by dim suffusion veil'd:
But he-However, let the Muse abstain,
Nor blast his fame from whom she learnt to sing
In much inferior strains, grovelling beneath
The' Olympian hill, on plains and vales intent,
Mean follower! There let her rest a while,
Pleased with the fragrant walks and cool retreat,

5 Milton.

BOOK II.

Argument.

Dedication to Mr. Harcourt.-Subject resumed.-Bad effects of blights, when the fruit is forming.-Autumn, the season of gathering apples.-Cider-mill, and press, described. Cider-washings.-Possibility of preserving and ripening wind-fall apples.-Caution against endeavouring to improve Cider, by mixing any thing with the pure juice of the apple; and against boiling it.-Tithe of apples to be paid. Signs of fair weather, and of fertile seasons.-Each season produces its appropriate fruits.-Wine, made of different sorts of fruits.-Mead.-Birch and cowslip wines. -Usquebaugh drank in Ireland; Mum and Geneva in Holland.-A drink made of Juniper berries, drank by the Northern Nations.-Persons in hot countries obliged to drink frequently.-Cider should be kept two years in cask before it is bottled; may be made of various sorts of apples, ground and pressed together; often resembles different kinds of wine so exactly, as to be mistaken by foreigners for the genuine wine, that is the particular growth of their own country; should not be racked until it is quite fine; should be bottled in the Spring.-Glass; how made, and bottles blown.-Different sorts of Cider require to be kept a different length of time in bottle, before they are fit for drinking.--Potency of Stire-Cider.-The Farmer's-feast.Praise of Bacchus, Christmas gambols, and the rustic-ball. -Temperance recommended.-Fatal consequences of intemperance. Battle of the Centaurs and Lapitha.-Civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament.-Panegyric on King Charles and on Queen Anne.-England happy in a monarchic Government.-The contentions of the Heptarchy, and wars under our first kings, contrasted with the peaceable and happy reign of Edgar. The achievements of Richard Cœur de Leon in the Crusades.-Victories of Edward III. in France.-Miseries of the civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster.-These houses united