That gives fociety its beauty, ftrength,
Convenience, and fecurity, and ufe:
Makes men mere vermin, worthy to be trapped-
And gibbeted, as faft as catchpole claws
Can feize the flippery prey: unties the knot Of union, and converts the facred band, That holds mankind together, to a scourge. Profufion, deluging a state with lufts Of groffeft nature and of worst effects, Prepares it for its ruin: hardens, blinds, And warps, the consciences of public men, Till they can laugh at virtue; mock the fools That trust them; and in the end disclose a face, That would have shocked credulity herself, Unmasked, vouchfafing this their fole excufeSince all alike are selfish, why not they?.. This does profufion, and the accurfed caufe Of fuch deep mischief has itself a cause.
In colleges and halls in ancient days, When learning, virtue, piety, and truth, Were precious, and inculcated with care, There dwelt a fage called Discipline. His head. Not yet by time completely filvered o'er,..
Bespoke him paft the bounds of freakish youth,
But ftrong for service still, and unimpaired.
His eye was meek and gentle, and a smile
Played on his lips; and in his speech was heard
Paternal sweetness, dignity, and love.
The occupation dearest to his heart
Was to encourage goodness.
The head of modeft and ingenuous worth,
That blufhed at its own praife; and prefs the youth
Close to his fide, that pleafed him. Learning grew
Beneath his care a thriving vigorous plant;
The mind was well informed, the paffions held
Subordinate, and diligence was choice.
If e'er it chanced, as fometimes chance it muft,
That one among fo many overleaped
The limits of controul, his gentle eye
Grew ftern, and darted a severe rebuke:
His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe,
As left him not, till penitence had won
Loft favour back again, and closed the breach.
But Difcipline, a faithful fervant long,
Declined at length into the vale of years:
A palfy ftruck his arm; his fparkling eye
Was quenched in rheums of age: his voice unftrung
Grew tremulous, and moved derifion more
Than reverence in perverse rebellious youth.
So colleges and halls neglected much
Their good old friend; and Difcipline at length.
O'erlooked and unemployed fell fick and died.
Then ftudy languished, emulation slept,
And virtue fled. The fchools became a scene
Of folemn farce, where Ignorance in stilts,
His cap well lined with logic not his own,
With parrot tongue performed the scholar's part,
Proceeding foon a graduated dunce.
Then compromise had place, and fcrutiny
Became ftone blind; precedence went in truck,
And he was competent whose purse was so.
A diffolution of all bonds enfued;
The curbs invented for the mulish mouth
Of head-ftrong youth were broken; bars and bolts,
Grew rufty by difufe; and maffy gates
Forgot their office, opening with a touch;
Till gowns at length are found mere masquerade,
The taffeled cap and the fpruce band a jeft,
A mockery of the world! What need of thefe
For gamefters, jockeys, brothellers impure,
Spendthrifts, and booted sportsinen, oftener seen
With belted waift and pointers at their heels,
Than in the bounds of duty? What was learned,
If aught was learned in childhood, is forgot;
And fuch expence, as pinches parents blue,
And mortifies the liberal hand of love,
Is fquandered in pursuit of idle sports
And vicious pleasures; buys the boy a name,
That fits a ftigma on his father's house,
And cleaves through life infeparably clofe
To him, that wears it. What can after-
-games Of riper joys, and commerce with the world,
The lewd vain world, that must receive him soon, Add to fuch erudition, thus acquired,
Where science and where virtue are profeffed?
They may confirm his habits, rivet fast
His folly, but to spoil him is a task,
That bids defiance to the united powers.
Of fashion, diffipation, taverns, ftews.
Now blame we most the nurflings or the nurfe?
The children crooked, and twisted, and deformed,
Through want of care; or her, whofe winking eye
And flumbering ofcitancy mars the brood?
The nurse no doubt. Regardless of her charge-
She needs herself correction; needs to learn,
That it is dangerous fporting with the world,
With things fo facred as a nation's trust,
The nurture of her youth, her deareft pledge.
All are not fuch. I had a brother oncePeace to the memory of a man of worth, A man of letters, and of manners too! Of manners sweet as virtue always wears, When gay good-nature dreffes her in smiles. He graced a college*, in which order yet Was facred; and was honoured, loved, and wept,, By more than one, themselves confpicuous there. Some minds are tempered happily, and mixt With fuch ingredients of good fenfe, and taste Of what is excellent in man, they thirst. With fuch a zeal to be what they approve, That no reftraints can circumfcribe them more Than they thenfelves by choice, for wisdom's fake;. Nor can example hurt them: what they fee Of vice in others but enhancing more The charms of virtue in their just esteem.
* Ben'et Coll. Cambridge.
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