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Poetical Works of William Cowper (with Selections From the Works of Robert Lloyd [and Others]) Ed. by R. Bell
Poetical Works of William Cowper Ed by R Bell - with Selections From the Works of Robert Lloyd and Others Author:William Cowper General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1854 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: And conscious of the outrage he commits, Shall seek it and not find it in his turn. Distinguished much by reason, and still more By our capacity of grace divine, From creatures that exist but for our sake, Which having served us, perish, we are held Accountable, and God, some future day, Will reckon with us roundly for the abuse Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust. Superior as we are, they yet depend Not more on human help, than we on theirs. Their strength, or speed, or vigilance, were given In aid of our defects. In some are found Such teachable and apprehensive parts, That man's attainments in his own concerns, Matched with the expertness of the brutes in theirs, Are ofttimes vanquished and thrown far behind. Some show that nice sagacity of smell, And read with such discernment in the port And figure of the man, his secret aim, That oft we owe our safety to a skill We could not teach, and must despair to learn. But learn we might, if not too proud to stoop To quadruped instructors, many a good And useful quality, and virtue too, Rarely exemplified among ourselves; Attachment never to be weaned, or changed By any change of fortune, proof alike Against unkinduess, absence, and neglect; Fidelity that neither bribe nor threat Can move or warp; and gratitude for small And trivial favours, lasting as the life And glistening even in the dying eye. t Man praises man. Desert in arts or arms Wins public honour; and ten thousand sitPatiently present at a sacred song, On sculls that cannot teach and will not learn. Task, ii. P. t Brutes ...« less