"The exalted prize demands an upward look,
"Not to be found by poring on a book.
"Small skill in Latin, and still lefs in Greek,
"Is more than adequate to all I feek.
"Let erudition grace him or not grace,
"I give the bauble but the second place;
"His wealth, fame, honours, all that I intend,
"Subfift and centre in one point-a friend.
"A friend, whate'er he ftudies or neglects,
"Shall give him confequence, heal all defects.
"His intercourse with peers and fons of peers-
"There dawns the splendour of his future years:
"In that bright quarter his propitious skies
"Shall blush betimes, and there his glory rise.
"Your Lordship,and Your Grace! what fchool can teach
"A rhetoric equal to thofe parts of speech?
"What need of Homer's verfe or Tully's profe,
"Sweet interjections! if he learn but those ?

"Let reverend churls his ignorance rebuke,
"Who ftarve upon a dog's-eared Pentateuch,
"The parfon knows enough, who knows a duke."
Egregious purpofe! worthily begun

In barbarous prostitution of your fon ;

Preffed on his part by means, that would disgrace
A fcrivener's clerk or footman out of place,

And ending, if at laft its end be gained,
In facrilege, in God's own house profaned.
It may fucceed; and, if his fins should call
For more than common punishment, it shall ;
The wretch fhall rife, and be the thing on earth
Leaft qualified in honour, learning, worth,
To occupy a facred, awful poft,

In which the beft and worthieft tremble moft.

he royal letters are a thing of course,

A king, that would, might recommend his horse;
And deans, no doubt, and chapters, with one voice,
As bound in duty, would confirm the choice.

Behold your bishop! well he plays his part,

Christian in name, and infidel in heart,

`Ghoftly in office, earthly in his plan,

A flave at court, elsewhere a lady's man.
Dumb as a fenator, and as a priest
A piece of mere church-furniture at beft;
To live eftranged from God his total fcope,
And his end fure, without one glimpse of hope.
But fair although and feafible it feem,
Depend not much upon your golden dream;
For providence, that feems concerned to exempt
The hallowed bench from abfolute contempt,
In fpite of all the wrigglers into place,

Still keeps a feat or two for worth and grace;

And therefore 'tis, that, though the fight be rare,
We fometimes fee a Lowth or Bagot there.
Befides, school-friendships are not always found,
Though fair in promife, permanent and found;
The moft difinterested and virtuous minds,
In early years connected, time unbinds;
New fituations give a different caft

Of habit, inclination, temper, tafte;

And he, that seemed our counterpart at firft,
Soon fhows the ftrong fimilitude reversed.

Young heads are giddy, and young hearts are warm, And make mistakes for manhood to reform.

Boys are at beft but pretty buds unblown,

Whose scent and hues are rather guessed than known;
Each dreams that each is juft what he appears,
But learns his error in maturer years,
When difpofition, like a fail unfurled,

Shows all its rents and patches to the world.
If, therefore, ev'n when honeft in design,
A boyish friendship may so soon decline,
'Twere wiser fure to inspire a little heart
With juft abhorrence of so mean a part,
Than fet your fon to work at a vile trade
For wages fo unlikely to be paid. ́

Our public hives of puerile refort,

That are of chief and most approved report,

To fuch bafe hopes, in many a fordid foul,
Owe their repute in part, but not the whole.
A principle, whofe proud pretenfions pafs
Unqueftioned, though the jewel be but glafs→→
That with a world, not often over-nice,
Ranks as a virtue, and is yet a vice;
Or rather a grofs compound, juftly tried,
Of envy, hatred, jealousy, and pride-
Contributes most perhaps to enhance their fame;
And emulation is its fpecious name.

Boys, once on fire with that contentious zeal,

Feel all the rage that female rivals feel ;

The prize of beauty in a woman's eyes
Not brighter than in their's the scholar's prize.
The spirit of that competition burns
With all varieties of ill by turns;

Each vainly magnifies his own fuccefs,
Refents his fellow's, wishes it were lefs,
Exults in his miscarriage if he fail,
Deems his reward too great if he prevail,
And labours to surpass him day and night,
Lefs for improvement than to tickle spite.
The fpur is powerful, and I grant its force;
It pricks the genius forward in its course,
Allows short time for play, and none for sloth;
And, felt alike by each, advances both:

But judge, where fo much evil intervenes,

The end, though plaufible, not worth the means.
Weigh, for a moment, claffical defert

Against an heart depraved and temper hurt;

Hurt too perhaps for life; for early wrong
Done to the nobler part, affects it long;
And you are ftaunch indeed in learning's cause,
If you can crown a difcipline, that draws
Such mischiefs after it, with much applause.

Connexion formed for intereft, and endeared
By selfish views, thus cenfured and cashiered;
And emulation, as engendering hate,
Doomed to a no less ignominious fate;
The props of fuch proud feminaries fall,
The Jachin and the Boaz of them all.
Great schools rejected then, as those that swell
Beyond a fize that can be managed well,

Shall royal inftitutions miss the bays,
And small academies win all the praise?
Force net my drift beyond its juft intent,
I praise a school as Pope a government;
So take my judgment in his language dreffed,
"Whate'er is beft adminiftered is beft."
Few boys are born with talents that excel,
But all are capable of living well;

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