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 theirs the scholar's prize.
The spirit of that competition burns
With all varieties of ill by turns;
Each vainly magnifies his own fuccefs,
Refents his fellow's, wifhes it were less,
Exults in his miscarriage if he fail,
Deems his reward too great if he prevail,
And labors to furpass him day and night,
Lefs for improvement, than to tickle fpite.
The spur is pow'rful, and I grant its force,
It pricks the genius forward in its course,
Allows fhort time for play, and none for floth,
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, claffical defert
Against an heart deprav'd and temper hurt,
Hurt too perhaps for life, for early wrong
Done to the nobler part, affects it long,
And you are ftaunch indeed in learning's caufe,
If you can crown a discipline, that draws
Such mischiefs after it, with much applause.
Connection form'd for int'reft, and endear'd
By selfish views, thus cenfur'd and cashier'd;
And Emulation, as engend'ring hate,
Doom'd to a no lefs ignominious fate,
The props of fuch proud feminaries fall,
The JACHIN and the Boaz of them all.
Great schools rejected then, as those that swell
Beyond a fize that can be manag'd well,
Shall royal institutions miss the bays,
And small academies win all the praise ?
Force not my drift beyond its just intent,
I praise a school as Pope a government;
So take my judgment in his language dress'd,
"Whate'er is best administer'd, is best.”
Few boys are born with talents that excel,
But all are capable of living well;
Then ask not, whether limited or large?
But, watch they strictly, or neglect their charge?
If anxious only that their boys may learn,
While Morals languish, a despis'd concern,
The great and fmall deserve one common blame,
Diff'rent in fize, but in effect the fame,
Much zeal in virtue's caufe all teachers boaft,
Though motives of mere lucre fway the most;
Therefore in towns and cities they abound,
For there, the game they feek is easiest found,
Though there, in fpite of all that care can do,
Traps to catch youth are most abundant too,
If fhrewd, and of a well-constructed brain,
Keen in purfuit, and vig'rous to retain,
Your fon come forth a prodigy of skill,
As wherefoever taught, fo form'd, he will,
The pædagogue, with felf-complacent air,
Claims more than half the praife as his due fhare;
But if, with all his genius, he betray,
Not more intelligent than loose and gay,
Such vicious habits as difgrace his name,
Threaten his health, his fortune, and his fame,
Though want of due reftraint alone have bred
The fymptoms that you fee with fo much dread,
Unenvy'd there he may fuftain alone
The whole reproach, the fault was all his own.
Oh 'tis a fight to be with joy perus'd,
By all whom fentiment has not abus'd,
New-fangled fentiment, the boafted grace
Of those who never feel in the right place;
A fight furpafs'd by none that we can fhow,
Though Veftris on one leg still shine below;
A father bleft with an ingenuous fon,
Father, and friend, and tutor all in one.
How!-turn again to tales long fince forgot,
Æfop, and Phædrus, and the rest ?—Why not?
He will not blush, that has a father's heart,
To take in childish plays a childish part,
But bends his sturdy back to any toy
That youth takes pleasure in, to please his boy;
Then why refign into a stranger's hand
A task as much within your own command,
That God and nature, and your int'reft too,
Seem with one voice to delegate to you?
Why hire a lodging in a house unknown,
For one whofe tend'reft thoughts all hover round your
This fecond weaning, needlefs as it is,
How does it lacerate both your heart and his !
Th' indented stick, that lofes day by day
Notch after notch, 'till all are fmooth'd away,
Bears witness, long ere his difmiffion come,
With what intenfe defire he wants his home.
But though the joys he hopes beneath
Bid fair enough to answer in the proof,
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