...demands tangible results, and it wants them soon. Trade doesn't waste its wealth and energies on " Dropping buckets into empty wells And growing old in drawing nothing up." But this has been the crazy pastime of war since the siege of Troy. "Take the whole history of mankind,"...

...slee[ vVioughtful man is plausibly amused, intend me, therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty...growing old in drawing nothing up !^ 'Twere well, says one, sage, erudite, found, pi Terribly arch'd and aquiline his nose, And overbuilt with most impending...

...While thoughtful man is plausibly amused. Defend me therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty...And growing old in drawing nothing up! 'Twere well, says one sage erudite, profound, Terribly arch'd and aquiline his nose, And overbuilt with most impending...

...ignorant and the sensual. To those few well-informed persons who still, from old prejudices, accuse us • of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up/ we may say that till the well of creation be emptied there is no danger of our returning from our labours...

...preach, without having his mind stored with theological knowledge, are not unjustly characterized as, 44 Dropping buckets into empty wells ; And growing old in drawing nothing up." Where there is eloquence at all, there must be the eloquence of thought. A man may bluster, and foam,...

...preach, without having his mind stored with theological knowledge, are not unjustly characterized as, " Dropping buckets into empty wells ; And growing old in drawing nothing up." Where there is eloquence at all, there must be the eloquence of thought. A man may bluster, and foam,...

...While thoughtful man is plausibly amused, Defend me therefore, common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up ! THE TASK. 215 And perilous lightnings from the angry clouds, And bid them hide themselves in earth...

...crimes alarm the conscience, but she sleeps Defend me therefore common sense, say I, From reveries so airy, from the toil Of dropping buckets into empty wells,* And growing old in drawing nothing up! 190 'Twere well, says one sage erudite, profound, Terribly arch'd and aquiline his nose, And overbuilt...

...description of the men whose condition is represented by Cowper as still worse, whose toil is that Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up 5 . Bear with me then, once more, whilst, in seeking to save you from such a profitless pursuit of...

...but burns with a steady and fixed lustre. Men do not, as a poet once complained, spend their lives in the toil— Of dropping buckets into empty wells, And growing old in drawing nothing up. The range of our literature is ample, but we do not need to walk through miles of dusty volumes, or...