And in triumphant melody confess The titillating joy. Thus on the air Depend the hunter’s hopes. When ruddy streaks At eve, forebode a blust’ring stormy day, Or lowering clouds blacken the mountain’s brow; When nipping frosts, and the keen biting blasts Of the dry parching east menace the trees, With tender blossoms teeming, kindly spare Thy sleeping pack, in their warm beds of straw Low-sinking, at their ease; listless they shrink Into some dark recess, nor hear thy voice, Though oft invoked; or, haply, if thy call Rouse up the slumbering tribe, with heavy eyes, Glazed, lifeless, dull, downward they drop their tails Inverted; high on their bent backs erect Their pointed bristles stare; or ’mong the tufts Of ranker weeds, each stomach-healing plant Curious they crop, sick, spiritless, forlorn. These inauspicious days, on other cares Employ thy precious hours; the improving friend With open arms embrace, and from his lips Glean science, season’d with good-natured wit. But if the inclement skies and angry Jove Forbid the pleasing intercourse, thy books Invite thy ready hand, each sacred page [Sidenote: BOOK I THE CHASE v. 386-399.] Rich with the wise remarks of heroes old. Converse familiar with the illustrious dead; With great examples of old Greece or Rome Enlarge thy free-born heart; and bless kind Heaven, That Britain yet enjoys dear liberty, That balm of life, that sweetest blessing; cheap, Though purchased with our blood. Well bred, polite, Credit thy calling. See! how mean, how low, The bookless, sauntring youth, proud of the skut That dignifies his cap, his flourish’d belt, And rusty couples gingling by his side. Be thou of other mould; and know, that such Transporting pleasures, were by Heaven ordain’d Wisdom’s relief, and Virtue’s great reward. [Illustration] [Illustration: BOOK II] Argument. _Of the power of instinct in brutes. Two remarkable instances in the hunting of the roebuck, and in the hare going to seat in the morning. Of the variety of seats or forms of the hare, according to the change of the season, weather, or wind. Description of the hare-hunting in all its parts, interspersed with rules to be observed by those who follow that chase. Transition to the Asiatick way of hunting, particularly the magnificent manner of the Great Mogul, and other Tartarian princes, taken from Monsieur Bernier, and the History of Gengis Cawn the Great. Concludes with a short reproof of tyrants and oppressors of mankind._ [Illustration]