O thou, whom, borne on fancy's eager wing
Back to the feafon of life's happy spring,
I pleased remember, and while memory yet
Holds faft her office here, can ne'er forget;
Ingenious dreamer, in whofe well-told tale
Sweet fiction and fweet truth alike prevail;
Whose humorous vein, ftrong fenfe,and fimple style,
May teach the gayeft, make the gravest smile;
Witty, and well employed, and like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables his flighted word;
I name thee not, left fo defpifed a name
Should move a fneer at thy deferved fame;
Yet ev'n in tranfitory life's late day,

That mingles all my brown with fober gray,
Revere the man, whofe PILGRIM marks the road,
And guides the PROGRESS of the foul to God.
"Twere well with moft, if books, that could engage
Their childhood, pleased them at a riper age;
The man, approving what had charmed the boy,
Would die at laft in comfort, peace and joy;
And not with curfes on his heart, who stole
The gem of truth from his unguarded foul.
The ftamp of artlefs piety impreffed
By kind tuition on his yielding breast,

The youth now bearded, and yet pert and raw,
Regards with fcorn, though once received with awe;
And, warped into the labyrinth of lies,
That babblers, called philofophers, devife,
Blafphemes his creed, as founded on a plan
Replete with dreams, unworthy of a man.
Touch but his nature in its ailing part,
Affert the native evil of his heart,

His pride resents the charge, although the proof*
Rife in his forehead, and seem rank enough:
Point to the cure, describe a Saviour's cross
As God's expedient to retrieve his lofs,
The young apoftate fickens at the view,
And hates it with the malice of a Jew.

How weak the barrier of mere nature proves, Opposed against the pleasures nature loves! While self-betrayed, and wilfully undone, She longs to yield, no fooner wooed than won. Try now the merits of this bleft exchange Of modeft truth for wit's eccentric range. 'Time was, he closed as he began the day With decent duty, not ashamed to pray:

See 2 Chron, ch. xxvi. ver. 19.

The practice was a bond upon his heart,
A pledge he gave for a confiftent part;
Nor could he dare presumptuously displease
A power, confeffed fo lately on his knees.
But now farewell all legendary tales,
The fhadows fly, philofophy prevails;
Prayer to the winds, and caution to the waves;
Religion makes the free by nature flaves.
Priests have invented, and the world admired
What knavifh priefis promulgate as infpired;
Till reason, now no longer overawed,
Refumes her powers, and fpurns the clumsy fraud;
And, common-fenfe diffufing real day,

The meteor of the gofpel dies away.

Such rhapsodies our fhrewd difcerning youth
Learn from expert inquirers after truth;
Whofe only care, might truth prefume to fpeak,
Is not to find what they profess to seek.
And thus, well-tutored only while we share
A mother's lectures and a nurse's care;
And taught at schools much mythologic stuff *,
But found religion sparingly enough;

*The author begs leave to explain.-Senfible that, without fuch knowledge, neither the ancient poets nor historians can

Our early notices of truth, difgraced,

Soon lose their credit, and are all effaced.

}

Would you your fon fhould be a fot or dunce,
Lafcivious, headstrong, or all these at once;
That in good time the stripling's finished taste
For loofe expenfe, and fashionable waste,
Should prove your ruin, and his own at laft;
Train him in public with a mob of boys,
Childish in mifchief only and in noise,
Elfe of a mannish 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,
But taverns teach the knowledge of the heart;
There waiter Dick, with Bacchanalian lays,
Shall win his heart, and have his drunken praise,
His counsellor and bofom-friend shall prove,
And fome street-pacing harlot his first love..

be tafted, or indeed understood, he does not t mean t to cenfure the pains that are taken to instruct a school-boy in the religion of the heathen, but merely that neglect of Christian culture which leaves him fhamefully ignorant of his own.

Schools, unless 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 fize
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 fubmit,
With them is courage; his effrontery wit.
His wild excurfions, window-breaking feats,
Robbery of gardens, quarrels in the streets,
His hair-breadth 'feapes, and all his daring fchemes,
Transport them, and are made their favourite themes.
In little bofoms fuch achievements ftrike
A kindred spark; they burn to do the like.
Thus, half-accomplished ere he yet begin
To show the peeping down upon his chin;
And, as maturity of years comes on,
Made juft the adept that you defigned your fon;
To enfure the perfeverance of his course,
And give your monftrous project all its force,
Send him to college. If he there be tamed,

Or in one article of vice reclaimed,