They may confirm his habits, rivet fast:
His folly, but to spoil him is a task,
That bids defiance to th' united powers
Of fashion, dissipation, taverns, stews.
Now blame we most the nurslings or the nurse?
The children crooked, and twisted, and deformed,
Through want of care ; or her, whose winking eye,
And slumbering oscitancy mars the brood ?
The nurse no doubt. Regardless of her charge,
She needs herself correction; needs to learn,
That it is dangerous sporting with the world,
With things so sacred as the nation's trust,
The nurture of her youth, her dearest pledge.

All are not such. I had a brother once-
Peace to the memory of a man of worth,
A man of letters, and of manners too!
Of manners sweet as Virtue always wears,

I
When gay Good-nature dresses her in smiles.
He graced a college,* in which order yet
Was sacred ; and was honoured, loved, and wept,
By more than one, themselves conspicuous there.
Some minds are tempered happily, and mixed
With such ingredients of good sense, and taste
Of what is excellent in man, they thirst
With such a zeal to be what they approve,
That no restraints can circumscribe them more
Than they themselves by choice, for wisdom's sake.
Nor can example hurt them: what they see
Of vice in others but enhancing more
The charms of virtue in their just esteem.

* Bene't Coll. Capıbridge.

If such escape contagion, and emerge
Pure from so foul a pool to shine abroad,
And give the world their talents and themselves,
Small thanks to those whose negligence or sloth
Exposed their inexperience to the snare, .
And left them to an undirected choice.

See then the quiver broken and decayed,
In which are kept our arrows: Rusting there
In wild disorder, and unfit for use,
What wonder if, discharged into the world,
They shame their shooters with a random flight,
Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine !
Well may the church wage unsuccessul war
With such artillery armed. Vice parries wide
Th’undreaded volley with a sword of straw,
And stands an impudent and fearless mark,

Have we not tracked the felon home, and found His birth-place and his dam? The country mourns, Mourns because every plague, that can infest Society, and that saps and worms the base Of th' edifice, that Policy has raised, Swarms in all quarters : meets the eye, the ear, And suffocates the breath at every turn. . Profusion breeds them; and the cause itself Of that calamitous mischief has been found : Found too where most offensive, in the skirts Of the robed pedagogue! Else let th' arraigned Stand up unconscious, and refute the charge. So when the Jewish leader stretched his arm, . . And waved his rod divine, a race obscene, Spawned in the muddy beds of Nile, came forth,

Polluting Egypt: gardens, fields, and plains,
Were covered with the pest; the streets were filled;
The croaking nuisance lurked in every nook;
Nor palaces, nor even chambers, 'scaped ;
And the land stank--so numerous was the fry. -

ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD BOOK.

Self-recollection and reproof.--Address to domestic hap

piness. Some account of myself.-The vanity of many of their pursuits who are reputed wise.-- Justification of my censures.-Divine illamination necessary to the most expert philosopher. The question, What is truth ? answered by other questions.-Domestic happiness addressed again.-Few lovers of the country. My tame hare.-Occupations of a retired gentleman in his garden. -Pruning.–Framing.--Green-house. Sowing of flower-seeds. The country preferable to the town even in winter.-Reasons why it is deserted at that season.-Ruinous effects of gaming, and of expensive improvement.--Book concludes with an apostrophe to the metropolis.