Of Academus, is this falfe or true?

Is Chrift the abler teacher, or the schools?

If Christ, then why refort at ev'ry turn

To Athens or to Rome, for wisdom short

Of man's occafions, when in him reside

Grace, knowledge, comfort, an unfathom'd ftore?
How oft, when Paul has ferv'd us with a text,
Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully preach'd!

Men that, if now alive, would fit content

And humble learners of a Saviour's worth,

Preach it who might. Such was their love of truth, Their thirst of knowledge, and their candour too.

And thus it is. The paftor, either vain
By nature, or by flatt'ry made fo, taught
To gaze at his own fplendor, and t'exalt
Abfurdly, not his office, but himself;

Or unenlighten'd, and too proud to learn,
Or vicious, and not therefore apt to teach,
Perverting often by the stress of lewd

And

J

And loofe example, whom he should instruct,

Exposes and holds up to broad difgrace

The nobleft function, and difcredits much

The brightest truths that man has ever seen.
For ghostly counsel, if it either fall

Below the exigence, or be not back'd

With show of love, at least with hopeful proof
Of fome fincerity on the giver's part;

Or be dishonor'd in th' exterior form

And mode of its conveyance, by fuch tricks
As move derifion, or by foppifh airs
And hiftrionic mumm'ry, that let down

The pulpit to the level of the stage,
Drops from the lips a difregarded thing.

The weak perhaps are moved, but are not taught,
While prejudice in men of stronger minds

Takes deeper root, confirm'd by what they see.
A relaxation of religion's hold

Upon the roving and untutor'd heart

Soon follows, and the curb of confcience fnapt,

The

The laity run wild.-But do they now?
Note their extravagance, and be convinc'd.

As nations, ignorant of God, contrive
A wooden one, fo we, no longer taught
By monitors that mother church supplies,
Now make our own. Pofterity will ask
(If e'er posterity fee verse of mine)

Some fifty or an hundred luftrums hence,
What was a monitor in George's days?

My very gentle reader, yet unborn,

Of whom I needs must augur

better things,

Since heav'n would fure grow weary of a world

Productive only of a race like ours,

A monitor is wood. Plank fhaven thin.

We wear it at our backs. There closely brac'd
And neatly fitted, it compreffes hard

The prominent and most unfightly bones,
And binds the fhoulders flat. We prove
Sov'reign and most effectual to secure

its use

A form

A form not now gymnaftic as of yore,

From rickets and diftortion, elfe, our lot.
But thus admonifh'd we can walk erect,
One proof at least 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,

Just please us while the fashion is at full,
But change with ev'ry moon. The fycophant

Who waits to dress us, arbitrates their date,
Surveys his fair reversion with keen eye;
Finds one ill made, another obsolete,

This fits not nicely, that is ill conceiv'd,
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 flavor. We have run
Through ev'ry change that fancy at the loom
Exhausted, has had genius to fupply,

And ftudious of mutation ftill, discard

A real

A real elegance, a little used,

For monstrous novelty and strange difguife.

We facrifice to dress, till houshold joys

And comforts cease. Dress 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 t'exhibit at the public shows

A form as fplendid as the proudest there,
Though appetite raife outcries at the coft?
A man o' th' town dines late, but foon enough,
With reasonable forecast and dispatch,

T' insure a fide-box station at half price.
You think, perhaps, so 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 fhe draws,
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,

That