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 plainly 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 discourse,
His phrafe well chofen, clear, and full of force;
And his address, if not quite French in ease,
Not English stiff, but frank, and form'd to please;
Low in the world, because he scorns 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 fee,
Arm'd for a work too difficult for thee;
Prepar'd by taste, by learning, and true worth,
To form thy fon, to ftrike his genius forth;
Beneath thy roof, beneath thine eye, to prove
The force of discipline when back'd by love;
To double all thy pleasure in thy child,
His mind inform'd, his morals undefil'd.
Safe under fuch a wing, the boy fhall fhow
No fpots contracted among grooms below,
Nor taint his speech with meanneffes, design'd
By footman Tom for witty and refin'd.
There, in his commerce with the liv'ried herd,
Lurks the contagion chiefly to be fear'd;
For, fince (fo fashion dictates) all, who claim
An higher than a mere plebeian fame,
Find it expedient, come what mifchief may,
To entertain a thief or two in
(And they that can afford th' expense of more,
Some half a dozen, and fome half a score)
Great cause occurs to fave him from a band
So fure to spoil him, and so near at hand;
A point fecur'd, if once he be fupplied
With fome fuch Mentor always at his fide.
Are fuch men rare? perhaps they would abound
Were occupation easier to be found,
Were education, else so fure to fail,
Conducted on a manageable scale,
And schools, that have outliv'd all just esteem,
Exchang'd for the fecure domeftic scheme.-
But, having found him, be, thou duke or earl,
Show thou haft fenfe enough to prize the pearl,
And, as thou would'ft th' advancement of thine heir
In all good faculties beneath his care,
Refpect, as is but rational and juft,
A man deem'd worthy of fo dear a trust.
Defpis'd by thee, what more can he expect
From youthful folly than the fame neglect?
A flat and fatal negative obtains,
That inftant, upon all his future pains;
His leffons tire, his mild rebukes offend,
And all th' inftructions of thy fon's best friend
Are a stream choak'd, or trickling to no end.
Doom him not then to folitary meals;
But recollect that he has fenfe, and feels;
And that, poffeffor of a foul refin'd,
An upright heart, and cultivated mind,
His poft not mean, his talents not unknown,
He deems it hard to vegetate alone.
And, if admitted at thy board he fit,
Account him no just mark for idle wit,
Offend not him, whom modesty restrains
From repartee, with jokes that he difdains;
Much less transfix his feelings with an oath;
Nor frown, unless he vanish with the cloth.-
And, truft me, his utility may reach
To more than he is hir'd or bound to teach;
Much trash unutter'd, and fome ills undone,
Through rev'rence of the censor of thy fon.
But, if thy table be indeed unclean,
Foul with excefs, and with difcourfe obfcene,
And thou a wretch, whom, following her old plan,
The world accounts an honourable man,
Because forfooth thy courage has been tried
And stood the teft, perhaps on the wrong
Though thou hadst never grace enough to prove
That any thing but vice could win thy love ;-
Or haft thou a polite, card-playing wife,
Chain'd to the routs that the frequents for life;
Who, juft when industry begins to fnore,
Flies, wing'd with joy, to fome coach-crowded door;
And thrice in ev'ry winter throngs thine own
With half the chariots and sedans in town,
Thyself meanwhile e'en fhifting as thou may'st;
Not very fober though, nor very chaste ;-
Or is thine house, though lefs fuperb thy rank,
If not a scene of pleasure, a mere blank,
And thou at beft, and in thy fob'reft mood,
A trifler vain, and empty of all good;-
Though mercy for thyself thou can'st have none,
Hear Nature plead, fhow mercy to thy fon.
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