Add too, that, thus estrang'd, thou canst obtain By no kind arts his confidence again; That here begins with most that long complaint Of filial frankness lost, and love grown faint, Which, oft neglected, in life's waning years A parent pours into regardless ears. Like caterpillars, dangling under trees By slender threads, and swinging in the breeze, Which filthily bewray and sore disgrace The boughs in which are bred th' unseemly race; While ev'ry worm industriously weaves And winds his web about the rivell'd leaves; So num'rous are the follies that annoy The mind and heart of every sprightly boy; Imaginations noxious and perverse, Which admonition can alone disperse. Th' encroaching nuisanee asks a faithful hand, Patient, affectionate, of high command, To check the procreation of a breed Sure to exhaust the plant on which they feed. Watch his emotions, and control their tide; T'impress a value, not to be eras'd, On moments squander'd else, and running all to waste. And seems it nothing in a father's eye Who feed a pupil's intellect with store Of syntax, truly, but with little more; Dismiss their cares when they dismiss their flock- To some not steep, though philosophic, height, Yon circling worlds, their distance, and their size, Its various parts to his attentive note, Thus bringing home to him the most remote; A wish to copy what he must admire. Such knowledge, gain'd betimes, and which appears, Though solid, not too weighty for his years, Sweet in itself, and not forbidding sport, When health demands it, of athletic sort, Would make him-what some lovely boys have been, And more than one, perhaps, that I have seen An evidence and reprehension both Of the mere school-boy's lean and tardy growth. Art thou a man professionally tied, With all thy faculties elsewhere applied, Too busy to intend a meaner care Than how t' enrich thyself, and next thine heir; No jester, and yet lively in discourse, His phrase well chosen, clear, and full of force; Wise for himself and his few friends alone- Arm'd for a work too difficult for thee; To form thy son, to strike his genius forth; |