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I name thee not, left so despised a name
Should move a fneer at thy deserved fame;
Yet ev❜n in tranfitory life's late day,

That mingles all my brown with sober gray,

Revere the man, whofe PILGRIM marks the road,
And guides the PROGRESS of the foul to God.
'Twere well with moft, if books, that could engage
Their childhood, pleased them at a riper age;
The man, approving what had charmed the boy,
Would die at last in comfort, peace and joy;
And not with curfes on his heart, who ftole
The gem of truth from his unguarded foul.
The ftamp of artless piety impreffed

By kind tuition on his yielding breast,

The youth now bearded, and yet pert and raw,
Regards with scorn, though once received with awe;
And, warped into the labyrinth of lies,

That babblers, called philofophers, devise,
Blafphemes his creed, as founded on a plan
Replete with dreams, unworthy of a man.
Touch but his nature in its ailing part,
Affert the native evil of his heart,

His pride refents the charge, although the proof *
Rife in his forehead, and feem rank enough:

* See 2 Chron. ch. xxvi. ver. 19.

Point to the cure, defcribe a Saviour's crofs

As God's expedient to retrieve his lofs,
The young apoftate fickens at the view,
And hates it with the malice of a Jew.

How weak the barrier of mere nature proves,
Oppofed against the pleasures nature loves!
While felf-betrayed, and wilfully undone,
She longs to yield, no fooner wooed than won.
Try now the merits of this bleft exchange
Of modeft truth for wit's eccentric range.
"Time was, he clofed as he began the day
With decent duty, not ashamed to pray:
The practice was a bond upon his heart,
A pledge he gave for a confiftent part;
Nor could he dare prefumptuously displease
A power, confeffed fo lately on his knees.
But now farewell all legendary tales,
The fhadows fly, philofophy prevails;

Prayer to the winds, and caution to the waves;
Religion makes the free by nature slaves.
Priefts have invented, and the world admired
What knavifh priefts promulgate as inspired;
Till reafon, now no longer overawed,
Refumes her powers, and spurns the clumsy fraud;

And, common-fense diffufing real day,
The meteor of the gofpel dies away.

Such rhapsodies our fhrewd difcerning youth
Learn from expert inquirers after truth;
Whose only care, might truth prefume to speak,
Is not to find what they profefs to feek.
And thus, well-tutored only while we share
A mother's lectures and a nurse's care;
And taught at schools much mythologic stuff*,
But found religion fparingly enough;

Our early notices of truth, difgraced,

Soon lofe their credit, and are all effaced.

Would you your son should be a fot or dunce,
Lascivious, headstrong, or all these at once;
That in good time the ftripling's finished tafte
For loofe expenfe, and fashionable wafte,
Should prove your ruin, and his own at last;
Train him in public with a mob of boys,
Childish in mifchief only and in noise,

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*The author begs leave to explain.-Senfible that, without fuch knowledge, neither the ancient poets nor h ftorians can be tafted, or indeed understood, he does not mean to cenfure the pains, that are taken to inftru a fchool-boy in the religion of the heathen, but merely that neglect of Chriftian culture, which leaves him fhamefully ignorant of his own.

Elfe of a mannifh growth, and five in ten
In infidelity and lewdness men.

There fhall he learn, ere fixteen winters old,
That authors are moft ufeful pawned or fold;
That pedantry is all that schools impart,
But taverns teach the knowledge of the heart;
There waiter Dick, with Bacchanalian lays,
Shall win his heart, and have his drunken praise,
Ilis counfellor and bofom-friend fhall prove,
And fome ftreet-pacing harlot his first love.
Schools, unless difcipline were doubly ftrong,
Detain their adolefcent charge too long;
The management of tiros of eighteen
Is difficult, their punishment obfcene.
The ftout tall captain, whofe fuperior size
The minor heroes view with envious eyes,
Becomes their pattern, upon whom they fix
Their whole attention, and ape all his tricks.
His pride, that fcorns to obey or to submit,
With them is courage; his effrontery wit.
His wild excursions, window-breaking feats,,
Robbery of gardens, quarrels in the streets,
His hair-breadth 'fcapes, and all his daring fchemes,
Transport them, and are made their favourite themes.
In little bofoms such achievements ftrike

A kindred spark; they burn to do the like.

Thus, half-accomplished ere he yet begin
To fhow the peeping down upon his chin;
And, as maturity of years comes on,

Made juft the adept that you designed your son ;
To ensure the perfeverance of his course,

And give your monstrous project all its force,
Send him to college. If he there be tamed,
Or in one article of vice reclaimed,

Where no regard of ordinances is shown

Or looked for now, the fault must be his own.
Some fneaking virtue lurks in him, no doubt,
Where neither ftrumpets' charms, nor drinking-bout,
Nor gambling practices, can find it out.

Such youths of spirit, and that spirit too,
Ye nurferies of our boys, we owe to you:

Though from ourselves the mischief more proceeds,
For public fchools 'tis public folly feeds.

The flaves of custom and established mode,
With pack-horse conftancy we keep the road,
Crooked or ftraight, through quags or thorny dells,
True to the jingling of our leaders bells.

To follow foolish precedents, and wink

With both our eyes, is easier than to think :
And fuch an age as our's baulks no expense,
Except of caution and of common-sense;

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