But reafon heard, and nature well perused,
At once the dreaming mind is disabused.
If all we find poffeffing earth, sea, air,
Reflect his attributes, who placed them there,
Fulfil the purpose, and appear defigned
Proofs of the wisdom of the all-feeing mind,
"Tis plain the creature, whom he chofe to inveft
With kingship and dominion o'er the reft,
Received his nobler nature, and was made
Fit for the power, in which he stands arrayed,
That firft or laft, hereafter if not here,
He too might make his author's wifdom clear,
Praise him on earth, or obftinately dumb
Suffer his juftice in a world to come.
This once believed, 'twere logic mifapplied
To prove a confequence by none denied,
That we are bound to caft the minds of youth
Betimes into the mould of heavenly truth,
That taught of God they may indeed be wife,
Nor ignorantly wandering mifs the fkies.
In early days the confcience has in moft
A quickness, which in later life is loft:
Preferved from guilt by falutary fears,
Or guilty foon relenting into tears.
Too careless often, as our years proceed,
What friends we fort with, or what books we read,
Our parents yet exert a prudent care
To feed our infant minds with proper fare;
And wifely ftore the nursery by degrees
With wholesome learning, yet acquired with ease.
Neatly fecured from being foiled or torn
Beneath a pane of thin translucent horn,
A book (to please us at a tender age
'Tis called a book, though but a fingle page)
Presents the prayer the Saviour deigned to teach
Which children ufe, and parfons—when they preach.
Lifping our fyllables, we scramble next
Through moral narrative, or facred text;
And learn with wonder how this world began,
Who made, who marred, and who has ranfomed, man.
Points, which unless the fcripture made them plam,
The wifeft heads might agitate in vain.
O thou, whom, borne on fancy's eager wing
Back to the feafon of life's happy spring,
I pleafed remember, and while memory yet
Holds faft her office here, can ne'er forget;
Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale
Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail;
Whofe humorous vein, ftrong fenfe, and fimple style,
May teach the gayeft, make the graveft smile;
Witty, and well employed, and like thy Lord,
Speaking in parables his flighted word;
I name thee not, left so despised a name
Should move a fneer at thy deserved fame;
Yet evʼn in transitory life's late day,
That mingles all my brown with sober gray,
kevere the man, whose 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 ftole
The gem of truth from his unguarded foul.
The ftamp of artlefs piety impreffed
By kind tuition on his yielding breaft,
The youth now bearded, and yet pert and raw,
Regards with scorn, 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 refents the charge, although the proof*
Rife in his forehead, and feem rank enough:
See 2 Chron. ch. xxvi. ver. 19.
Point to the cure, defcribe 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, Oppofed against the pleasures nature loves! While felf-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 clofed as he began the day With decent duty, not ashamed to pray : The practice was a bond upon his heart, A pledge he gave for a confiftent part; Nor could he dare prefumptuously ditplease 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 slaves. Priests have invented, and the world admired What knavish priests promulgate as inspired; Till reafon, now no longer overawed,
Refumes her powers, and fpurns the clumfy fraud;
And, common-fenfe diffufing real day,
The meteor of the gospel dies away.
Such rhapfodies our fhrewd difcerning youth
Learn from expert inquirers after truth;
Whofe only care, might truth prefume to speak,
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 fparingly enough;
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, headftrong, or all these at once; That in good time the ftripling's finished tafte For loose expenfe, and fashionable wafte, Should prove your ruin, and his own at laft; Train him in public with a mob of boys, Childish in mischief only and in noise,
The author begs leave to explain.-Senfible that, without fuch knov ledge, neither the ancient poets nor hiftorians can be tafted', or indeed understood, he does not mean 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 im fhamefully ignorant of his own.
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