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' unfeemly 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 every fprightly boy;
Imaginations noxious and perverse,
Which admonition can alone difperfe.

Th' encroaching nuisance asks 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 not enough that Greek or Roman page,
At ftated hours, his freakish thoughts engage;
Ev'n in his paftimes he requires a friend
To warn, and teach him fafely to unbend,
O'er all his pleasures gently to prefide,
Watch his emotions, and control their tide;
And, levying thus, and with an easy sway,
A tax of profit from his very play,

T'impress a value, not to be eras'd,

On moments fquander'd else, and running all to waste.
And feems 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 feed a pupil's intellect with store
Of fyntax, truly, but with little more;
Difmifs their cares when they difmifs their flock-
Machines themselves, and govern'd by a clock.
Perhaps a father, bleft with any brains,
Would deem it no abuse, or waste of pains,
T'improve this diet, at no great expense,
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 distance, and their fize,
The moons of Jove, and Saturn's belted ball,
And the harmonious order of them all;
To fhow him, in an insect or a flow'r,
Such microscopic proof of skill and pow'r,

As, hid from ages paft, God now displays
To combat atheifts with in modern days;
To spread the earth before him, and commend,
With defignation 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 appears,
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 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 thyself, 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 shade of fad;
Not of a nimble tongue, though now and then
Heard to articulate like other men ;

No jester, and yet lively in discourse,

His phrafe well chofen, clear and full of force;
And his addrefs, if not quite French in ease,
Not English ftiff, 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 himfelf and his few friends alone-
In him the 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 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, defign'd
By footman Tom for witty and refin’d.

There, in his commerce with his 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 mischief may,
To entertain a thief or two in pay,

(And they that can afford th' expense of more,
Some half a dozen, and fome half a score)
Great caufe 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 sure to fail,
Conducted on a manageable scale,

And schools that have out-liv'd all just esteem,
Exchang'd for the secure domestic scheme.-
But, having found him, be thou duke or earl,
Show thou haft sense enough to prize the pearl,
And, as thou wouldst th' advancement of thine heir
In all good faculties beneath his care,

Refpect, as is but rational and just,

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 ?