This poem is introduced into 'The Vicar of Wakefield,' and Goldsmith
there says of it, "It is at least free from the false taste of loading
the lines with epithets;" or as he puts it more fully "a string of
epithets that improve the sound without carrying on the sense."


"_Immeasurably spread_" = spread to an immeasurable length.


_No flocks that range the valleys free_. "Free" may be joined either
with flocks or with valley.

Note the position of the negative, "No flocks that range," &c. = I do
not condemn the flocks that range.


_Guiltless feast_. Because it does not involve the death of a
fellow-creature.


_Scrip_. A purse or wallet; a word of Teutonic origin.
Distinguish from scrip, a writing or certificate, from the Latin word
_scribo_, I write.


_Far in a wilderness obscure_. Obscure goes with mansion, not with
wilderness.


_And gaily pressed_ (him to eat).