How weak the barrier of mere nature proves Oppos’d against the pleasures nature loves ! While self-betray'd, and wilfully undone, She longs to yield, no sooner woo'd than won. Try now the merits of this blest exchange Of modest truth for wit's eccentric range. Time was, he clos'd as he began the day With decent duty, not asham'd to pray; The practice was a bond upon his heart, A pledge he gave for a consistent part, Nor could he dare presumptuously displease A pow'r confess’d fo lately on his knees. But now farewell all legendary tales, The shadows fly, philosophy prevails ; Pray'r to the winds, and caution to the waves, Religion makes the free by nature slaves, Priests have invented, and the world admir'd What knavilh priests. promulgate as inspir’d, 'Till reason, now no longer overaw'd, Resumes her pow'rs, and spurns the clumsy fraud, And, common sense diffusing reał day, The meteor of the gospel dies away. Such rhapsodies our shrewd difcerning youth Learn from expert enquirers after truth; Whose only care, might truth presume to speak, Is not to find what they profess to feek. And thus well tutorid only while we share A mother's lectures and a nurse's care;

And

And taught at schools much mythologic stuff,*
But sound religion sparingly enough ;
Our early notices of truth, disgrac'd,
Soon lose their credit, and are all effac'd.

Would you your fon should be a fot or dunce,
Lascivious, headstrong, or all these at once ;
That, in good time, the stripling's finish'd taste
For loose expence, and fashionable waste,
Should prove your ruin and his own at last;
Train him in public with a mob of boys,
Childish in mischief only and in noise,
Elfe of a mannish growth, and five in ten
In infidelity and lewdness, men.
There shall he learn, ere fixteen winters old,
That authors are most useful, pawn'd or fold;
That pedantry is all that schools impart,
But taverns teach the knowledge of the heart;
There waiter Dick, with Bacchanalian lays,
Shall win his heart and have his drunken praise,
His counsellor and bosom friend shall prove,
And some street-pacing harlot his first love.

* The author begs leave to explain : Senfible that, without such knowledge, neither the ancient poets nor historians can be tasted, or indeed understood, he does not mean to censure the pains that are taken to instruct a school-boy in the religion of a heathen, but merely that neglect of Christian culture which leaves him shamefully ignorant of his

Schools, unless discipline were doubly strong,
Detain their adolescent charge too long;
The management of Tiroes of eighteen
Is difficult, their punishment obscene.
The stout tall Captain, whose superior fize
The minor heroes view with envious eyes,
Becomes their pattern, upon whom they fix
Their whole attention, and ape all his tricks.
His pride, that scorns t'obey or to submit,
With them is courage, his effrontery wit.
His wild excursions, window-breaking feats,
Robb’ry of gardens, quarrels in the stree:S,
His hair-breadth 'scapes, and all his daring

fchemes, Transport them, and are made their fav'rite

themes.
In little bosoms such atchievements strike
A kindred spark, they burn to do the like.
Thus, half-accomplish'd ere he yet begin
To show the peeping down upon his chin,
And, as maturity of years comes on,
Made just th’adept that you design'd your son,
T'insure the perseverance of his course,
And give your monstrous project all its force,
Send him to college. If he there be tam’d,
Or in one article of vice reclaim'd,
Where no regard of ord'nances is shown
Or look'd for now, the fault must be his own.

Some

Some sneaking virtue lurks in him, no doubt, Where neither strumpets charms, nor drinking

bout, Nor gambling practices, can find it out. Such youths of spirit, and that spirit too, Ye nurs’ries of our boys, we owe to you: Though from ourselves the mischief more pro

ceeds, For public schools 'tis public folly feeds; The flaves of custom and establish'd mode, With pack-horse constancy we keep the road, Crooked or straight, through quags or thorny

dells, True to the jingling of our leaders bells. To follow foolish precedents, and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think; And such an age as ours baulks no expence, Except of caution and of common-fense, Else sure, notorious fact and proof so plain Would turn our steps into a wiser train. I blame not those who with what care they can O'erwatch the num'rous and unruly clan, Or if I blame, 'tis only that they dare Promise a work of which they must defpair. Have ye, ye fage intendants of the whole, An ubiquarian presence and controul, Elisha's eye, that when Gehazi stray'd Went with him, and saw all the game he play'd ?

Yes,

Yes-ye are conscious : and on all the shelves
Your pupils strike upon, have struck yourselves.
Or if by nature fober, ye had then,
Boys as ye were, the gravity of men,
Ye knew at least, by constant proofs addrefs'd
To ears and eyes, the vices of the rest.
But
ye

connive at what ye cannot cure,
And evils not to be endur:d, endure,
Lest pow'r exerted, but without success,
Should make the little ye retain still less.
Ye once were justly fam’d for bringing forth
Undoubted scholarship and genuine worth,
And in the firmament of fame still shines,
A glory bright as that of all the signs,
Of poets rais’d by you, and statesmen and divines.
Peace to them all, thofe brilliant times are fled,
And no such lights are kindling in their stead.
Our striplings shine indeed, but with fuch rays
As set the midnight riot in a blaze,
And seem, if judg'd by their expressive looks,
Deeper in none than in their surgeons books.

Say, muse (for education made the song,
No mufe can hesitate or linger long)
What causes move us, knowing as we must
That these Menageries all fail their trust,
To send our sons to scout and scan per there,
While colts and puppies coft us so much care?

Be