在劳动生活的种种弊端中，也可以找到一些宁静和幸福的观点。——《夏日安息日的宁静与快乐:被陶醉和争论打断》。-乡村减损。——乡绅的抱怨。——《夜间暴乱》——正义。——对乡村生活抱有这种不愉快看法的原因及其对下层社会的影响;和更高的。最后一种人有其独特的痛苦:罗伯特·曼纳斯勋爵的生与死就是例证。——致拉特兰公爵陛下的结束语。 NO longer truth, though shown in verse, disdain, But own the village life a life of pain; I too must yield, that oft amid these woes Are gleams of transient mirth and hours of sweet repose. Such as you find on yonder sportive Green, The 'Squire's tall gate and churchway-walk between; Where loitering stray a little tribe of friends, On a fair Sunday when the sermon ends: Then rural beaux their best attire put on, To win their nymphs, as other nymphs are won; While those long wed go plain, and by degrees, Like other husbands, quit their care to please. Some of the sermon talk, a sober crowd, And loudly praise, if it were preach'd aloud; Some on the labours of the week look round, Feel their own worth, and think their toil renown'd; While some, whose hopes to no renown extend, Are only pleas'd to find their labours end. Thus, as their hours glide on with pleasure fraught, Their careful masters brood the painful thought; Much in their mind they murmur and lament, That one fair day should be so idly spent; And think that Heaven deals hard, to tythe their store And tax their time for preachers and the poor. Yet still, ye humbler friends, enjoy your hour, This is your portion, yet unclaim'd of power; This is Heaven's gift to weary men opprest, And seems the type of their expected rest: But yours, alas! are joys that soon decay; Frail joys, begun and ended with the day; Or yet, while day permits those joys to reign, The village vices drive them from the plain. See the stout churl, in drunken fury great, Strike the bare bosom of his teeming mate! His naked vices, rude and unrefin'd, Exert their open empire o'er the mind; But can we less the senseless rage despise, Because the savage acts without disguise? Yet here Disguise, the city's vice, is seen, And Slander steals along and taints the Green; At her approach domestic peace is gone, Domestic broils at her approach come on; She to the wife the husband's crime conveys, She tells the husband when his consort strays; Her busy tongue, through all the little state, Diffuses doubt, suspicion, and debate; Peace, tim'rous goddess! quits her old domain, In sentiment and song content to reign. Nor are the nymphs that breathe the rural air So fair as Cynthia's, nor so chaste as fair; These to the town afford each fresher face, And the Clown's trull receives the Peer's embrace; From whom, should chance again convey her down, The Peer's disease in turn attacks the Clown. Hear too the 'Squire, or 'squire-like farmer, talk, How round their regions nightly pilferers walk; How from their ponds the fish are borne, and all The rip'ning treasures from their lofty wall; How meaner rivals in their sports delight, Just rich enough to claim a doubtful right; Who take a licence round their fields to stray, A mongrel race! the Poachers of the day. And hark! the riots of the Green begin, That sprang at first from yonder noisy inn; What time the weekly pay was vanish'd all, And the slow hostess scor'd the threat'ning wall; What time they ask'd, their friendly feast to close, A final cup, and that will make them foes; When blows ensue that break the arm of Toil, And rustic battle ends the boobies' broil. Save when to yonder hall they bend their way, Where the grave Justice ends the grievous fray; He who recites, to keep the poor in awe, The law's vast volume - for he knows the law. - To him with anger or with shame repair The injur'd peasant and deluded fair. Lo! at his throne the silent nymph appears, Frail by her shape, but modest in her tears; And while she stands abash'd, with conscious eye, Some favourite female of her judge glides by; Who views with scornful glance the strumpet's fate, And thanks the stars that made her keeper great: Near her the swain, about to bear for life One certain evil, doubts 'twixt war and wife; But, while the faultering damsel takes her oath, Consents to wed, and so secures them both. Yet why, you ask, thes