Who fasten without mercy on the fair,
And fuck, and leave a craving maggot there.
However disguised the inflammatory tale,
And covered with a fine-spun fpecious veil ;
Such writers, and fuch readers, owe the guft
And relish of their pleasure all to luft.

But the mufe, eagle-pinioned, has in view
A quarry more important still than you;
Down, down the wind the fwims, and fails away,
Now floops upon it, and now grafps the prey.
Petronius! all the mufes weep for thee;
But every tear shall scald thy memory:
The graces too, while virtue at their shrine
Lay bleeding under that soft hand of thine,
Felt each a mortal ftab in her own breaft,
Abhorred the facrifice, and cursed the priest.
Thou polished and high-finished foe to truth,
Gray-beard corrupter of our listening youth,
To purge and fkim away the filth of vice,
That fo refined it might the more entice,
Then pour it on the morals of thy fon;
To taint his heart, was worthy of thine own!
Now, while the poifon all high life pervades,
Write, if thou canft, one letter from the fhades
One, and one only, charged with deep regret
That thy worfe part, thy principles, live yet :

One fad epiftle thence may cure mankind
Of the plague spread by bundles left behind.
"Tis granted, and no plainer truth appears,
Our most important are our earliest years;
The mind, impreffible and soft, with ease
Imbibes and copies what the hears and fees,
And through life's lybarinth holds faft the clue,
That education gives her, false or true.

Plants raised with tenderness are seldom strong;
Man's coltifh difpofition asks the thong;
And without discipline the favourite child,
Like a neglected forefter, runs wild.
But we, as if good qualities would grow
Spontaneous, take but little pains to fow;
We give fome Latin, and a smatch of Greek ;
Teach him to fence and figure twice a week;
And having done, we think, the best we can,
Praise his proficiency, and dub him man.

From school to Cam or Ifis, and thence home; And thence with all convenient speed to Rome, With reverend tutor clad in habit lay,

To tease for cash and quarrel with all day;
With memorandum-book for every town,

And every poft, and where the chaise broke down;
His ftock, a few french phrafes got by heart,

With much to learn, but nothing to impart,

The youth, obedient to his fire's commands,
Sets off a wanderer into foreign lands.

Surprised at all they meet, the gosling pair

With awkward gait, ftretched neck, and filly ftare,
Discover huge cathedrals built with ftone,
And fteeples towering high much like our own;
But show peculiar light by many a grin
At popish practices obferved within.

Ere long fome bowing, smirking, smart Abbé
Remarks two loiterers, that have loft their way;
And being always primed with politesse
For men of their appearance and address,
With much compaffion undertakes the task
To tell them more than they have wit to ask⚫
Points to infcriptions wherefoever they tread,
Such as, when legible, were never read.
But, being cankered now and half worn out,
Craze antiquarian brains with endless doubt;
Some headless hero, or some Cæfar fhows-
Defective only in his Roman nose;
Exhibits elevations, drawings, plans,
Models of Herculanean pots and pans ;
And fells them medals, which if neither rare
Nor ancient, will be fo, preferved with care.
Strange the recital! from whatever caufe

His great improvement and new light he draws,

The fquire, once bafhful, is fhame-faced no more,
But teems with powers he never felt before :
Whether increafed momentum, and the force,
With which from clime to clime he fped his courfe,
(As axles fometimes kindle as they go)

Chafed him, and brought dull nature to a glow;

Or whether clearer fkies and fofter air,

That make Italian flowers fo fweet and fair,

Freshening his lazy fpirits as he ran,
Unfolded genially and spread the man;
Returning he proclaims by many a grace,
By fhrugs and ftrange contortions of his face,
How much a dunce, that has been sent to roam,
Excels a dunce, that has been kept at home.
Accomplishments have taken virtue's place,
And wifdom falls before exterior grace :
We flight the precious kernel of the ftone,
And toil to polish its rough coat alone.
A juft deportment, manners graced with ease,
Elegant phrafe, and figure formed to please,
Are qualities, that feem to comprehend
Whatever parents, guardians, fchools, intend;
Hence an unfurnished and a liftless mind,
Though bufy, trifling; empty, though refined;
Hence all that interferes, and dares to clash
With indolence and luxury, is trash :

While learning, once the man's exclufive pride,
Seems verging faft towards the female fide.
Learning itself, received into a mind

By nature weak, or viciously inclined,
Serves but to lead philofophers aftray,

Where children would with eafe difcern the way.
And of all arts fagacious dupes invent
To cheat themselves and gain the world's affent,
The worst is scripture warped from its intent.

The carriage bowls along, and all are pleased
If Tom be fober, and the wheels well greafed ;
But if the rogue have gone a cup too far,
Left out his linch-pin, or forgot his tar,
It fuffers interruption and delay,

And meets with hindrance in the fmootheft way. When fome hypothefis abfurd and vain

Has filled with all its fumes a critic's brain,
The text, that forts not with his darling whim,
Though plain to others, is obfcure to him.

The will made fubject to a lawless force,
All is irregular and out of course;

And judgment drunk, and bribed to lose his way,
Winks hard, and talks of darkness at noon-day.
A critic on the facred book should be

Candid and learned, difpaffionate and free;