"His intercourse with peers, and sons 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 school "can teach

"A rhet'ric equal to those parts of speech? "What need of Homer's verse or Tully's prose, "Sweet interjections! if he learn but those? "Let rev'rend churls his ignorance rebuke, "Who starve upon a dog's-ear'd Pentateuch, "The parson knows enough who knows a duke.”— Egregious purpose! worthily begun

In barb'rous prostitution of your son;

Press'd on his part by means that would disgrace
A scriv❜ner's clerk or footman out of place,
And ending, if at last its end be gain'd,
In sacrilege, in God's own house profan'd!
It may succeed, and, if his sins should call
For more than common punishment, it shall;

The wretch shall rise, and be the thing on earth

Least qualified in honour, learning, worth,
To occupy a sacred, awful post,

In which the best and worthiest tremble most.

The 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,
Ghostly in office, earthly in his plan,

A slave at court, elsewhere a lady's man!
Dumb as a senator, and, as a priest,

A piece of mere church-furniture at best;
To live estrang'd from God his total scope,
And his end sure, without one glimpse of hope!
But, fair although and feasible it seem,

Depend not much upon your golden dream;
For Providence, that seems concern'd t' exempt
The hallow'd bench from absolute contempt,

In spite of all the wrigglers into place,
Still keeps a seat or two for worth and grace;
And therefore 'tis, that, though the sight be rare,
We sometimes see a Lowth or Bagot there.
Besides, school-friendships are not always found,
Though fair in promise, permanent and sound;
The most disint'rested and virtuous minds,
In early years connected, time unbinds;
New situations give a diff'rent cast

Of habit, inclination, temper, taste;

And he, that seem'd our counterpart at first,
Soon shows the strong similitude revers'd.

Young heads are giddy, and young hearts are warm,
And make mistakes for manhood to reform.
Boys are at best but pretty buds unblown,
Whose scent and hues are rather guess'd than known;
Each dreams that each is just what he appears,
But learns his error in maturer years,

When disposition, like a sail unfurl'd,

Shows all its rents and patches to the world.

If, therefore, ev'n when honest in design,
A boyish friendship may so soon decline,
'Twere wiser sure t' inspire a little heart
With just ahhorrence of so mean a part,
Than set your son to work at a vile trade
For wages so unlikely to be paid.

Our public hives of puerile resort, That are of chief and most approv'd report, To such base hopes, in many a sordid soul, Owe their repute in part, but not the whole. A principle, whose proud pretensions pass Unquestion'd, though the jewel be but glassThat with a world, not often over-nice, Ranks as a virtue, and is yet a vice;

Or rather a gross compound, justly tried,

Of envy, hatred, jealousy, and prideContributes most perhaps t' enhance their fame; An emulation is its specious 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 success,

Resents his fellow's, wishes it were less,
Exults in his miscarriage if he fail,

Deems his reward too great if he prevail,
And labours to surpass him day and night,
Less for improvement than to tickle spite.
The spur 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 so much evil intervenes,

The end, though plausible, not worth the means. Weigh, for a moment, classical desert

Against an heart deprav'd and temper hurt;