Page:Cyder - a poem in two books (1708).djvu/14

BOOK I.
 * But if (for Nature doth not share alike

Her Gifts) an happy Soil shou'd be with-held; If a penurious Clay shou'd be thy Lot, Or rough unweildy Earth, nor to the Plough, Nor to the Cattle kind, with sandy Stones And Gravel o'er-abounding, think it not Beneath thy Toil; the sturdy Pear-tree here Will rise luxuriant, and with toughest Root Pierce the obstructing Grit, and restive Marle.


 * Thus naught is useless made; nor is there Land,

But what, or of it self, or else compell'd, Affords Advantage. On the barren Heath The Shepherd tends his Flock, that daily crop Their verdant Dinner from the mossie Turf, Sufficient; after them the Cackling Goose, Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her Want. Rh