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 Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright,) He comes, the herald of a noisy world," &c. In modern editions, I believe universally, we find the following corruption of the passage:— "Hark! 'tis the twanging horn o'er yonder bridge, That with," &c. closing with a colon or period at "bright," and beginning a new sentence with "He comes;" and thus making the p…