Sovereign and moft effectual to fecure

A form, not now gymnaftic as of yore,
From rickets and distortion, else our lot.
But thus admonished, we can walk ere&t—

One proof at leaft of manhood! while the friend
Sticks clofe, a Mentor worthy of his charge.
Our habits, coftlier than Lucullus wore,
And by caprice as multiplied as his,
Juft please us while the fashion is at full,

But change with
every moon. The fycophant,
Who waits to dress us, arbitrates their date;
Surveys his fair reverfion with keen eye;
Finds one ill made, another obsolete,
This fits not nicely, that is ill conceived;
And, making prize of all that he condemns,
With our expenditure defrays his own.
Variety's the very spice of life,

That gives it all its flavour. We have run
Through every change, that fancy at the loom
Exhaufted has had genius to fupply;
And, ftudious of mutation ftill, difcard
A real elegance, a little ufed,

For monftrous novelty and ftrange disguise.
We facrifice to drefs, till household joys
And comforts ceafe. Drafs drains our cellar dry,
And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires;

And introduces hunger, froft, and woe,

Where peace and hofpitality might reign.

What man that lives, and that knows how to live,
Would fail to exhibit at the public shows

A form as fplendid as the proudeft there,
Though appetite raife outcries at the coft?
A man of the town dines late, but foon enough,
With reasonable forecaft and dispatch,

To infure a fide box ftation at half price.
You think perhaps fo delicate his dress,
His daily fare as delicate. Alas!

He picks clean teeth, and, bufy as he seems
With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet!
The rout is folly's circle, which she draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,
That none, decoyed into that fatal ring,
Unless by heaven's peculiar grace, escape.
There we grow early gray, but never wife;
There form connexions, but acquire no friend;
Solicit pleasure hopeless of success;

Waste youth in occupations only fit

For fecond childhood, and devote old age
To fports, which only childhood could excufe.
There they are happieft, who diffemble beft
Their wearinefs; and they the most polite,
Who fquander time and treasure with a smile,

Though at their own deftruction. She, that asks
Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all,
And hates their coming. They (what can they lefs?)
Make juft reprifals; and with cringe and fhrug,
And bow obfequious, hide their hate of her.
All catch the frenzy, downward from her grace,
Whose flambeaux flash against the morning skies,
And gild our chamber ceilings as they pass,
To her, who frugal only that her thrift
May feed exceffes fhe can ill afford,

Is hackneyed home unlacqueyed; who in hafte
Alighting turns the key in her own door,

And, at the watchman's lantern borrowing light,
Finds a cold bed her only comfort left.

Wives beggar hufbands, husbands ftarve their wives,
On fortune's velvet altar offering up

Their laft poor pittance-fortune, most severe
Of goddeffes yet known, and costlier far
Than all, that held their routs in Juno's heaven.-
So fare we in this prifon-house the world;

And 'tis a fearful spectacle to fee

So many maniacs dancing in their chains.
They gaze upon the links, that hold them faft,
With eyes of anguifh, execrate their lot,
Then shake them in despair, and dance again!

Now basket up the family of plagues,
That waste our vitals; peculation, fale
Of honour, perjury, corruption, frauds
By forge y, by fubterfuge of law,

By tricks and lies as numerous and as keen
As the neceffities their authors feel;
Then caft them, clofely bundled, every brat
At the right door. Profufion is the fire.
Profution unreftrained, with all that's bafe
In character, has littered all the land,
And bred, within the memory of no few,
A priesthood, fuch as Baal's was of old,
A people, fuch as never was till now.
It is a hungry vice :-it eats up all,
That gives fociety its beauty, ftrength,
Convenience, and fecurity, and ule:

Makes men mere vermin, worthy to be trapped
And gibbeted, as faft as catchpole claws

Can feize the flippery prey: unties, the knot
Of union, and converts the facred band,
That holds mankind together, to a scourge.
Profufion, deluging a state with lufts
Of groffeft nature and of worst effects,
Prepares it for its ruin: hardens, blinds,
And warps, the confciences of public men,

Till they can laugh at virtue; mock the fools,
That truft them; and in the end disclose a face,
That would have fhocked credulity herself,
Unmasked, vouchfafing this their fole excufe-
Since all alike are felfish, why not they?
This does profufion, and the accurfed caufe
Of fuch deep mischief has itself a cause.

In colleges and halls in ancient days, When learning, virtue, piety, and truth, Were precious, and inculcated with care, There dwelt a fage called Difcipline. His head, Not yet by time completely filvered o'er, Bespoke him paft the bounds of freakish youth, But ftrong for fervice ftill, and unimpaired. His eye was meek and gentle, and a smile Played on his lips; and in his fpeech was heard Paternal sweetness, dignity, and love.

The occupation deareft to his heart

Was to encourage goodness. He would ftroke
The head of modeft and ingenuous worth,

That blushed at its own praise; and prefs the youth
Clofe to his fide, that pleafed him. Learning grew
Beneath h's care a thriving vigorous plant;
The mind was well inf rmed, the paffions held
Subordinate, and diligence was choice.