Ele of a mannifh growth, and five in ten
In infidelity and lewdness men.
There fhall he learn, ere fixteen winters old,
That authors are most useful pawned or fold;
That pedantry is all that schools impart,
Bat taverns teach the knowledge of the heart;
There waiter Dick, with Bacchanalian lays,
Shall win his heart, and have his drunken praife,
His counsellor and bofom-friend shall prove,
And fome street-pacing harlot his first love.
Schools, unlefs difcipline were doubly ftrong,
Detain their adolefcent charge too long;
The management of tiros of eighteen
Is difficult, their punishment obfcene.
The ftout tall captain, whofe fuperior fizé
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 to obey or to submit,
With them is courage; his effrontery wit.
His wild excurfions, window-breaking feats,
Robbery of gardens, quarrels in the streets,
Ilis hair-breadth 'fcapes, and all his daring fchemes,
Tranfport them, and are made their favourite themes:
In little bofoms fuch achievements strike
A kindred fpark: they burn to do the like.
Thus, half-accomplished ere he yet begin
To fhow the peeping down upon his chin;
And, as maturity of years comes on,
Made just the adept that you defigned your fon;
To enfure the perfeverance of his course,
And give your monstrous project all its force,
Send him to college. If he there be tamed,
Or in one article of vice reclaimed,
Where no regard of ordinances is shown
Or looked for now, the fault must be his own.
Some sneaking virtue lurks in him, no doubt,
Where neither ftrumpets' charms, nor drinking-bout,
Nor gambling practices, can find it out.
Such youths of spirit, and that spirit too,
Ye nurseries of our boys, we owe to you:
Though from ourselves the mischief more proceeds,
For public schools 'tis public folly feeds.
The flaves of custom and established mode,
With pack-horfe conftancy we keep the road,
Crooked or ftraight, through quags or thorny dells,
True to the jingling of our leaders bells.
To follow foolish precedents, and wink
With both our eyes, is eafier than to think:
And fuch an age as our's baulks no expenfe,
Except of caution and of common-sense;
Elfe fure notorious fact and proof fo plain
Would turn our fteps into a wifer train.
I blame not thofe, who with what care they can
O'erwatch the numerous and unruly clan;
Or, if I blame, 'tis only that they dare
Promise a work, of which they must despair.
Have ye, ye fage intendants of the whole,
An ubiquarian prefence and controul,
Elifha's eye, that when Gehazi ftrayed,
Went with him, and faw all the game he played?
Yes-ye are confcious; and on all the shelves
Your pupils ftrike upon,
Or if by nature fober, ye had then,
Boys as ye were, the gravity of men ;
Ye knew at leaft, by conftant proofs addreffed
To ears and eyes, the vices of the reft.
ye connive at what ye cannot cure,
And evils, not to be endured, endure,
Left power exerted, but without success,
Should make the little ye retain ftill lefs.
Ye once were juftly famed for bringing forth
Undoubted scholarship and genuine worth;
And in the firmament of fame ftill fhines
A glory, bright as that of all the signs,
Of poets raised by you, and statesmen, and divines.
Peace to them all! those brilliant times are fled,
And no fuch lights are kindling in their stead.
Our ftriplings shine indeed, but with fuch rays,
As fet the midnight riot in a blaze;
And feem, if judged by their expreffive looks,
Deeper in none than in their furgeons' books.
Say mufe, (for education made the fong,
No mufe can hesitate or linger long)
What causes move us, knowing as we muft,
That these Menageries all fail their truft,
To send our fons to fcout and scamper there,
While colts and puppies coft us so much care?
Be it a weakness, it deferves fome praife, We love the play place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is ftone, That feels not at that fight, and feels at none. The wall on which we tried our graving skill, The very name we carved fubfifting ftill;
The bench on which we fat while deep employed,
Though mangled, hacked, and hewed, not yet deftroyed:
The little ones, unbuttoned, glowing hot,
Playing our games, and on the very spot;
As happy as we once, to kneel and draw
The chalky ring, and knuckle down at taw;
To pitch the ball into the grounded hat,
Or drive it devious with a dexterous pat;
The pleafing fpectacle at once excites
Such recollection of our own delights,
That viewing it, we seem almost to obtain
Our innocent fweet fimple years again.
This fond attachment to the well-known place,
Whence first we started into life's long race,
Maintains its hold with fuch unfailing sway,
We feel it ev'n in age, and at our latest day.
Hark! how the fire of chits, whose future share
Of claffic food begins to be his care,
With his own likeness placed on either knee,
Indulges all a father's heart-felt glee;
And tells them, as he ftrokes their filver locks,
That they must soon learn Latin, and to box;
Then turning he regales his liftening wife
With all the adventures of his early life;
His skill in coachmanship, or in driving chaise,
In bilking tavern bills, and spouting plays;
What shifts he used, detected in a scrape,
How he was flogged, or had the luck to escape;
What fums he loft at play, and how he fold
Watch, feals, and all-till all his pranks are told,
Retracing thus his frolics, ('tis a name
That palliates deeds of folly and of fhame)
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