Harmless, and fafe, and natʼral as they are, Of love by abfence chill'd into respect. Thou well deferv'ft an alienated fon, Unless thy conscious heart acknowledge-none; None that, in thy domeftic fnug recess, He had not made his own with more address, Though fome perhaps that fhock thy feeling mind, And better never learn'd, or left behind. Add too, that, thus eftrang'd, thou can't obtain That here begins with most that long complaint Of filial franknefs loft, and love grown faint, Which, oft neglected, in life's waning years, A parent pours into regardless ears. Like caterpillars dangling under trees By flender threads, and fwinging in the breeze, The boughs in which are bred th' unfeemly race, And winds his web about the rivell'd leaves; So num'rous are the follies that annoy The mind and heart of ev'ry sprightly boy, Imaginations noxious and perverse, Which admonition can alone difperfe. Th' encroaching nuifance afks a faithful hand, To To check the procreation of a breed Sure to exhaust the plant on which they feed, Watch his emotions and controul their tide, T'imprefs a value, not to be eras'd, On moments fquander'd elfe, and running all to waste. And seems it nothing in a father's eye That unimprov'd those many moments fly? And is he well content his fon fhould find Who feed a pupil's intellect with ftore Of fyntax truly, but with little more; Dismiss their cares when they dismiss their flock, Would deem it no abuse or waste of pains, To fome not steep, though philosophic height, Yon circling worlds, their distance, and their fize, To fpread the earth before him, and commend, With defignation of the finger's end, Its various parts to his attentive note, Thus bringing home to him the most remote ; To fet fome living worthy in his view, When health demands it, of athletic fort, appears Would make him-what some lovely boys have been, And more than one perhaps that I have seen An evidence, and reprehenfion, both, Of the mere school-boy's lean and tardy growth. Art thou a man profeffionally tied, With all thy faculties elsewhere applied, |