(Bk. I, ll. 262 foll.)
or in such a mock-heroic fling as
The stable yields a stercoraceous heap
Impregnated with quick fermenting salts
And potent to resist the freezing blast.
(Bk. III, 463)[115]
On these and many similar occasions Cowper has turned his predilection to playful account, as also when he diagnoses the symptoms of gout as
pangs arthritic that infest the toe
Of libertine excess,
or speaks of monarchs and Kings as