But families of less illustrious fame,

Whose chief distinction is their spotless name,

Whose heirs, their honours none, their income

small,

Must shine by true desert, or not at all,

What dream they of, that with so little care

They risk their hopes, their dearest treasure, there?
They dream of little Charles or William grac'd 360
With wig prolix, down flowing to his waist;
They see th' attentive crowds his talents draw,
They hear him speak-the oracle of law.

The father, who designs his babe a priest,
Dreams him episcopally such at least;

And, while the playful jockey scours the room
Briskly, astride upon the parlour broom,

In fancy sees him more superbly ride

In coach with purple lin❜d, and mitres on it's side,

Events improbable and strange as these,

Which only a parental eye foresees,

A public school shall bring to pass with ease.

370

But how? resides such virtue in that air,
As must create an appetite for pray'r?
And will it breathe into him all the zeal,
That candidates for such a prize should feel,
To take the lead and be the foremost still

In all true worth and literary skill?

"Ah blind to bright futurity, untaught

379

"The knowledge of the World, and dull of thought! "Church-ladders are not always mounted best

"By learned clerks, and Latinists profess'd.
"Th' exalted prize demands an upward look,
"Not to be found by poring on a book.
"Small skill in Latin, and still less in Greek,
"Is more than adequate to all I seek.
"Let erudition grace him, or not grace,

"I give the bauble but the second place;

"His wealth, fame, honours, all that I intend, "Subsist and centre in one point—a friend. 390 "A friend, whate'er he studies or neglects,

"Shall give him consequence, heal all defects.

"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

400

"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 it's 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;

410

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,

420

431

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.

440

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 errour in maturer years,

When disposition, like a sail unfurl'd,

Shows all it's rents and patches to the World.

450