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 own?

This fecond weaning, needlefs as it is,
How does it lacerate both your heart and his!
Th' intended stick, that lofes day by day
Notch after notch, 'till all are fmooth'd away,
Bears witnefs, long ere his difmiffion come,
With what intense defire he wants his home:
But though the joys he hopes beneath your roof
Bid fair enough to answer in the proof,
Harmless, and fafe, and natʼral as they are,
A disappointment waits him even there:
Arriv'd he feels an unexpected change,

He blushes, hangs his head, is fhy and ftrange,
No longer takes, as once, with fearless ease,
His fav'rite ftand between his father's knees,
But feeks the corner of fome distant feat,
the door, and watches a retreat,
And, least familiar where he should be moft,
Feels all his happiest privileges loft.
Alas, poor boy!-the natural effect -

And eyes

Of love by abfence chill'd into refpect.

Say, what accomplishments, at fchool acquir'd, Brings he, to fweeten fruits fo undefir'd.?

Thou well deferv'ft an alienated fon,
Unless thy confcious heart acknowledge-none,
None that, in thy domeftic fnug recefs,

He had not made his own with more address,

Though fome perhaps that shock thy feeling mind,

And better never learn'd, or left behind.

Add too, that, thus eftrang'd, thou canst obtain
By no kind arts his confidence again ;

That here begins with moft 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,
Which filthily bewray and fore difgrace

The boughs in which are bred th' unseemly

race,

While ev'ry worm industriously weaves

And winds his web about the rivell'd leaves;
So num'rous are the follies that annoy
The mind and heart of ev'ry fprightly boy,
Imaginations noxious and perverfe,
Which admonition can alone difperfe.
Th' encroaching nuisance afks a faithful hand,
Patient, affectionate, of high command,

To check the procreation of a breed

Sure to exhauft the plant on which they feed.

'Tis

Tis not enough that Greek or Roman page,
At ftated hours, his freakish thoughts engage;
Ev'n in his pastimes he requires a friend
To warn, and teach him fafely to unbend,
O'er all his pleasures gently to prefide,
Watch his emotions and controul their tide,
And, levying thus, and with an easy fway,
A tax of profit from his very play,
T'imprefs a value, not to be eras'd,

On moments fquander'd elfe, and running all to wafte.

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
No nourishment to feed his growing mind
But conjugated verbs, and nouns declin'd?
For fuch is all the mental food purvey'd

By public hacknies in the schooling trade;
Who feeds a pupil's intellect with store
Of fyntax truly, but with little more;

Difmifs their cares when they dismiss their flock,
Machines themselves, and govern'd by a clock.
Perhaps a father bleft with any brains

Would deem it no abufe or waste of pains,
T'improve this diet, at no great expence,
With fav'ry truth and wholesome common sense;
To lead his fon, for profpects of delight,

To fome not steep, though philofophic height,

Thence to exhibit to his wond'ring eyes

Yon circling worlds, their diftance, and their

fize,

The moons of Jove, and Saturn's belted ball,
And the harmonious order of them all;
To fhow him, in an infect or a flow'r,
Such microscopic proof of fkill and pow'r,
As, hid from ages past, God now displays
To combat Atheists with in modern days;
To fpread the earth before him, and commend,
With designation of the finger's end,

Its various parts to his attentive note,

Thus bringing home to him the most remote ;
To teach his heart to glow with gen'rous flame,
Caught from the deeds of men of ancient fame ;
And, more than all, with commendation due
To fet fome living worthy in his view,
Whofe fair example may at once inspire
A wish to copy what he must admire.

Such knowledge gain'd betimes, and which ap

pears

Though folid, not too weighty for his

years,

Sweet in itself, and not forbidding sport,

When health demands it, of athletic fort,

Would make him-what fome lovely boys have

been,

And more than one perhaps that I have feen

An

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,^^
Too busy to intend a meaner care

Than how t' enrich thyfelf, and next thine heir;
Or art thou (as though rich, perhaps thou art)
But poor in knowledge, having none t' impart ;-
Behold that figure, neat, though meanly clad,
His fprightly mingled with a fhade of fad;
Not of a nimble tongue, though now and then
Heard to articulate like other men;

No jefter, and yet lively in difcourfes

His phrase well chofen, clear, and full of force;"
And his addrefs, if not quite French in ease,
Not English stiff, but frank and form'd to please ;
Low in the world, because he fcorns its arts,
A man of letters, manners, morals, parts; ·
Unpatroniz'd, and therefore little known, ·
Wife for himself and his few friends alone-
In him thy well-appointed proxy see,
Arm'd for a work too difficult for thee;
Prepar'd by tafte, by learning and true worth.
To form thy fon, to strike his genius forth;
Beneath thy roof, beneath thine eye to prove
The force of difcipline when back'd by love; ;
To double all thy pleasure in thy child,
His mind inform'd, his morals undefil'd.

Safe