The bending scythe

with rakes,

GAY.

The ploughman leaves the task of day,
And trudging homeward whistles on the way.
GAY.

How turnips hide their swelling heads below,
And how the closing coleworts upwards grow.
GAY.
Cheerful at morn, he wakes from short repose,
Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes.
GOLDSMITH: Traveller.

Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroy'd can never be supplied.
GOLDSMITH: Deserted Village.

Nor is 't unwholesome to subdue the land
By often exercise; and where before
You broke the earth, again to plow.

MAY.

The ground one year at rest, forget not then With richest dung to hearten it again. MAY.

Their bulls they send to pastures far
On hills, or feed them at full racks within.
MAY.

Bring them for food sweet boughs and osiers cut, Nor all the winter long thy hay-rick shut.

Her flood of tears Seem like the lofty barn of some rich swain, Which from the thatch drips fast a shower of rain. SWIFT.

In ancient times, the sacred plough employ'd
The kings, and awful fathers of mankind;
And some, with whom compared your insect
tribes

Are but the beings of a summer's day,

Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm
Of mighty war, then, with unwearied hand,
Disdaining little delicacies, seized
The plough, and greatly independent lived.
THOMSON.

To the harness'd yoke
They lend their shoulder, and begin their toil.
THOMSON.

With superior boon may your rich soil
Exuberant nature's better blessings pour
O'er every land, the naked nations clothe,
And be th' exhaustless granary of a world.
THOMSON.

They rose as vigorous as the sun; Then to the culture of the willing glebe.

THOMSON.

In rueful gaze

The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens Cast a deploring eye.

THOMSON.

As they rake the green-appearing ground, The russet haycock rises.

THOMSON.

Behind the master walks, builds up the shocks, Feels his heart heave with joy.

THOMSON.

The gleaners,

Spike after spike, their sparing harvest pick.
THOMSON.

Huswives are teached, instead of a clocke,
How winter night passeth, by crowing of cocke.

TUSSER.

If snowe do continue, sheepe hardly that fare Crave mistle and ivie for them to spare.

TUSSER.

In May get a weed-hook, a crotch, and a glove, And weed out such weeds as the corn doth not love.

TUSSER.

Plough-Monday next after that the twelftide is

past,

Bids out with the plough, the worst husband is last.

TUSSER.

At Midsummer down with the brambles and brakes,

And after abroad with thy forks and thy rakes. TUSSER. Such land as ye break up for barley to sow, Two earths, at the least, ere ye sow it, bestow.

TUSSER.

Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moon: Who soweth them sooner he soweth too soone. TUSSER.

Friend, harrow in time, by some manner of

means,

Not only thy peason, but also thy beans.

TUSSER.

Plant ye with alders or willowes a plot,
Where yeerely, as needeth, mo poles may be got.
TUSSER.

The north is a noiance to grass of all suits,
The east a destroyer to herbs and all fruits.
TUSSER.

The west as a father all goodness doth bring, The east a forbearer no manner of thing.

TUSSER.

Let servant be ready with mattock in hand To stub out the bushes that noieth the land.

TUSSER.

In lopping and felling save elder and stake, Thine hedges, as needeth, to mend or to make. TUSSER.

One seed for another to make an exchange With fellowly neighbourhood seemeth not strange.

TUSSER.

Land arable, driven, or worn to the proof, With oats you may sow it, the sooner to grass,

prime,

For graffing and cropping is very good time. TUSSER.

TUSSER.

And he that can rear up a pig in his house, Hath cheaper his bacon, and sweeter his souse.

TUSSER.

and spade,

By line and by level trim garden is made.

TUSSER.

Now down with the grass upon headlands about, That groweth in shadow so rank and so stout.

TUSSER.

Some commons are barren, the nature is such, And some overlayeth the commons too much.

TUSSER.

Grant harvest-lord more by a penny or two, To call on his fellows the better to do.

TUSSER.

Things thus set in order, in quiet and rest,
Shall further thy harvest, and pleasure thee best.

TUSSER.

Reap well, scatter not, gather clean that is shorn, Bind fast, shock apace, have an eye to thy corn. TUSSER.

So likewise a hovel will serve for a room
To stack on the peas, when harvest shall come.
TUSSER.

Who abuseth his cattle and starves them for meat, By carting or ploughing his gain is not great; Where he that with labour can use them aright, Hath gain to his comfort, and cattle in plight. TUSSER.

So corn in fields, and in the garden flowers Revive, and raise themselves with mod'rate showers;

But overcharged with never-ceasing rain,
Become too moist.

WALLER.

Your reign no less assures the ploughman's peace,

Than the warm sun advances his increase.

WALLER.

Such is the mould that the blest tenant feeds On precious fruits, and pays his rent in weeds. WALLER.

Be not with honour's gilded baits beguiled,
Nor think ambition wise, because 'tis brave;
For though we like it, as a forward child,
'Tis so unsound her cradle is her grave.
SIR W. DAVENANT: Gondibert.

Ambition, the disease of virtue, bred
Like surfeits from an undigested fulness,
Meets death in that which is the means of life.
SIR J. DENHAM.

Nature and duty bind him to obedience:
But these being placed in a lower sphere,
His fierce ambition, like the highest mover,
Has hurried with a strong impulsive motion
Against their proper course.

SIR J. DENHAM. Some through ambition, or through thirst of gold, Have slain their brothers, and their country sold. DRYDEN.

Those who to empire by dark paths aspire, Still plead a call to what they most desire. DRYDEN.

One world sufficed not Alexander's mind;
Coop'd up he seem'd, in earth and seas confined.
DRYDEN.

Too truly Tamerlane's successors they ;
Each thinks a world too little for his sway.
DRYDEN.

O diadem, thou centre of ambition,
Where all its different lines are reconciled;
As if thou wert the burning glass of glory.

DRYDEN.