"Besides, a fate attends on all I write,

That when i aim at praise they say I bite.

A vile encomium doubly ridicules;

There's nothing blackens like the ink of fools.

If true, a woeful likeness; and, if lies,

'Praise undeserved is Scandal in disguise.'">[

Passage in Cowper's "Task."—In all early editions of Cowper's Task the opening lines of the 4th book are punctuated as follows:—

"Hark! 'tis the twanging horn! O'er yonder bridge,

(That with its wearisome but needful length

Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon