Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

Sav'd from his home, where ev'ry day brings forth

Some mischief fatal to his future worth,

Find him a better in a distant spot,

Within fome pious pastor's humble cot,
Where vile example (your's I chiefly mean,
The most feducing and the oft'nest feen)
May never more be stamp'd upon his breast,
Not yet perhaps incurably impress'd.
Where early rest makes early rising sure,

Disease or comes not, or finds eafy cure,
Prevented much by diet neat and plain,
Or if it enter, foon starv'd out again :
Where all th' attention of his faithful hoft,
Discreetly limited to two at most,

May raise fuch fruits as fhall reward his care,

And not at last evaporate in air:

Where, stillness aiding study, and his mind
Serene, and to his duties much inclin'd,
Not occupied in day-dreams, as at home,
Of pleasures paft or follies yet to come,

His virtuous toil may terminate at last

In fettled habit and decided tafte.

But whom do I advife? the fashion-led,

Th' incorrigibly wrong, the deaf, the dead,
Whom care and cool deliberation fuit

Not better much than spectacles a brute,
Who, if their fons fome flight tuition share,

Deem it of no great moment whose, or where;
Too proud t' adopt the thoughts of one unknown,
And much too gay
t' have any of their own.

But courage, man! methought the muse replied,

Mankind are various, and the world is wide:

The oftrich, filliest of the feather'd kind,
And form'd of God without a parent's mind,
Commits her eggs, incautious, to the duft,
Forgetful that the foot may crush the trust;
And, while on public nurs'ries they rely,
Not knowing, and too oft not caring, why,
Irrational in what they thus prefer,

No few, that would seem wife, resemble her.

But

But all are not alike. Thy warning voice

May here and there prevent erroneous choice;

And fome perhaps, who, bufy as they are,

progeny

their dearest care,

may

Yet make their
(Whofe hearts will ache, once told what ills
Their offspring, left upon fo wild a beach)
Will need no ftrefs of argument t' inforce
Th' expedience of a lefs advent'rous course;
The reft will flight thy counfel, or condemn ;
But they have human feelings-turn to them.

To you then, tenants of life's middle ftate, Securely plac'd between the small and great, Whose character, yet undebauch'd, retains

Two thirds of all the virtue that remains,

reach

Who, wife yourselves, defire your fons should learn

I turn.

Your wisdom and your ways-to you
Look round you on a world perversely blind-
See what contempt is fall'n on human kind—

See

See wealth abus'd, and dignities mifplac'd,
Great titles, offices, and trufts difgrac'd,
Long lines of anceftry, renown'd of old,
Their noble qualities all quench'd and cold;
See Bedlam's clofetted and hand-cuff'd charge
Surpafs'd in frenzy by the mad at large;
See great commanders making war a trade,
Great lawyers, lawyers without ftudy made;
Churchmen, in whofe esteem their bleft employ
Is odious, and their wages all their joy,
Who, far enough from furnishing their shelves.
With gospel lore, turn infidels themselves;
See womanhood despis'd, and manhood sham'd
With infamy too naufeous to be nam'd,
Fops at all corners, lady-like in mien,

Civeted fellows, fmelt ere they are seen,

Elfe coarse and rude in manners, and their tongue

On fire with curfes and with nonsense hung,

Now flufh'd with drunk'ness, now with whoredom pale,
Their breath a fample of last night's regale;

See volunteers in all the vileft arts,

Men well endow'd, of honourable parts,

Defign'd by nature wife, but felf-made fools;

All these, and more like thefe, were bred at schools.

And if it chance, as fometimes chance it will,
That though school-bred, the boy be virtuous still,
Such rare exceptions fhining in the dark,
Prove, rather than impeach, the juft remark;
As here and there a twinkling ftar defcried
Serves but to fhow how black is all befide.
Now look on him whofe very voice in tone
Juft echoes thine, whofe features are thine own,
And stroke his polifh'd cheek of pureft red,
And lay thine hand upon his flaxen head,
And fay, My boy, th' unwelcome hour is come,
When thou, tranfplanted from thy genial home,
Muft find a colder foil and bleaker air,

And truft for fafety to a ftranger's care;

What character, what turn thou wilt affume

From conftant converfe with I know not whom;

VOL. II.

Z

Who

« НазадПродовжити »