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 their's the fcholar's prize.
The fpirit 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 labours to furpass him day and night,
Lefs for improvement than to tickle spite.
The fpur 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 stanch indeed in learning's caufe,
If you can crown a difcipline, that draws
Such mischiefs after it, with much applause.

Connexion 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 mifs 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 drefs'd-
"Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft."

Few boys are born with talents that excel,

But all are capable of living well;

Then afk not, Whether limited or large?

But, Watch they firictly, or neglect their charge?
If anxious only that their boys may learn,
While morals languifh, a defpis'd concern,

The great and small deferve 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 moft;
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, so form'd, he will;
The pedagogue, with felf-complacent air,

Claims more than half the praife as his due share.

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 symptoms that you fee with fo much dread; ...
Unenvy'd there, he may sustain 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 boasted grace
Of those who never feel in the right place;
A fight furpass'd by none that we can fhow,
Though Veftris on one leg ftill fhine 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 int'reft too,

your

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 lac'rate both your heart and his!

Th' indented ftick, that lofes day by day
Notch after notch, till all are fmooth'd away,

Bears witness, 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 anfwer in the proof,