Sav'd from his home, where ev'ry day brings forth
Some mischief fatal to his future worth,
Find him a better in a distant spot,
Within fome pious pastor's humble cot,
Where vile example (your's I chiefly mean,
The most feducing and the oft'neft feen)
May never more be ftamp'd upon his breast,
Not yet perhaps incurably imprefs'd :-
Where early reft makes early rifing fure,
Disease or comes not, or finds eafy cure,
Prevented much by diet neat and plain;
Or, if it enter, foon ftarv'd out again:-
Where all th' attention of his faithful hoft,
Discreetly limited to two at most,
May raise fuch fruits as shall reward his care,
And not at last evaporate in air :-
Where, ftillness aiding study, and his mind.
Serene, and to his duties much inclin'd,
Not occupied in day-dreams, as at home,
Of pleasures paft, or follies yet to come,
His virtuous toil may terminate at last
In fettled habit and decided taste.
But whom do I advise? the fashion-led,
Th' incorrigibly wrong, the deaf, the dead!
Whom care and cool deliberation fuit
Not better much than spectacles a brute ;
Who, if their fons fome flight tuition share,
Deem it of no great moment whofe, or where;
Too proud t' adopt the thoughts of one unknown,
And much too gay t' have any of their own.
But, courage, man! methought the muse replied,
Mankind are various, and the world is wide:
The oftrich, fillieft of the feather'd kind,
And form'd of God without a parent's mind,
Commits her eggs, incautious, to the dust,
Forgetful that the foot may crush the truft;
And, while on public nurs'ries they rely,
Not knowing, and too oft not caring, why,
Irrational in what they thus prefer,
No few, that would feem wife, resemble her.
But all are not alike. Thy warning voice
May here and there prevent erroneous choice;
And some perhaps, who, bufy as they are,
Yet make their progeny their dearest care,
(Whofe hearts will ache, once told what ills may reach
Their offspring, left upon fo wild a beach)
Will need no stress of argument t' enforce
Th' expedience of a lefs advent'rous courfe
The reft will flight thy counsel, or condemn;
But they have human feelings-turn to them.
To you, then, tenants of life's middle state,
Securely plac'd between the fmall and great,
Whofe character, yet undebauch'd, retains
Two thirds of all the virtue that remains,
Who, wife yourselves, defire your fons fhould learn
Your wisdom and your ways—to you I turn.
Look round you on a world perversely blind;
See what contempt is fall'n on human kind;
See wealth abus'd, and dignities mifplac'd,
Great titles, offices, and trufts difgrac'd,
Long lines of ancestry, renown'd of old,
Their noble qualities all quench'd and cold;
See Bedlam's clofetted and hand-cuff'd charge
Surpafs'd in frenzy by the mad at large;
See great commanders making war a trade,
Great lawyers, lawyers without study made;
Churchmen, in whose esteem their blest employ
Is odious, and their wages all their joy,
Who, far enough from furnishing their shelves
With gospel lore, turn infidels themselves;
See womanhood despis'd, and manhood sham'd
With infamy too naufeous to be nam'd,
Fops at all corners, lady-like in mien,
Civeted fellows, fmelt ere they are feen,
Elfe coarse and rude in manners, and their tongue
On fire with curfes, and with nonfenfe hung,
Now flufh'd with drunk'ness, now with whoredom pale,
Their breath a fample of last night's regale;
See volunteers in all the vileft arts,
Men well endow'd, of honourable parts,
Defign'd by nature wife, but felf-made fools ;
All these, and more like these, were bred at schools!
And, if it chance, as fometimes chance it will,
That, though school-bred, the boy be virtuous still;
Such rare exceptions, fhining in the dark,
Prove, rather than impeach, the just remark:
As here and there a twinkling star defcried
Serves but to fhow how black is all befide.
Now look on him, whose very voice in tone
Juft echoes thine, whofe features are thine own,
And stroke his polifh'd cheek of purest red,
And lay thine hand upon his flaxen head,
And fay-My boy, th' unwelcome hour is come,
When thou, transplanted from thy genial home,
Must find a colder foil and bleaker air,
And truft for fafety to a firanger's care;
What character, what turn thou wilt affume
From conftant converfe with I know not whom;
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