With rev'rend tutor clad in habit lay,
To teaze for cash and quarrel with all day,
With memorandum-book for ev'ry town,
And ev'ry poft, and where the chaife 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 wand'rer into foreign lands :
Surpriz'd at all they meet, the gofling pair
With aukward gait, ftretch'd neck, and filly ftare,
Discover huge cathedrals built with stone,
And steeples tow'ring high much like our own,
But show peculiar light by many a grin
At Popish practices obferv'd within.
E'er long fome bowing, fmirking, smart Abbé
Remarks two loit'rers that have loft their way,
And being always primed with politeffe
For men of their appearance and address,
With much compaffion undertakes the task,
To tell them more than they have wit to afk.
Points to infcriptions wherefoe'er they tread,
Such as when legible were never read,
But being canker'd now, and half worn out,
Craze antiquarian brains with endless doubt:
Some headless hero or fome Cæfar fhows,
Defective only in his Roman nofe;
Exhibits elevations, drawings, plans,
Models of Herculanean pots and pans,
And fells them medals, which if neither rare
Nor antient, will be fo, preferv'd with care.
Strange the recital! from whatever caufe
His great improvement and new lights he draws,
The 'Squire once bashful is shame-fac'd no more,
But teems with pow'rs he never felt before:
Whether encreas'd momentum, and the force
With which from clime to clime he fped his courfe,
As axles fometimes kindle as they go,
Chaf'd him and brought dull nature to a glow;
Or whether clearer fkies and fofter air
That make Italian flow'rs fo fweet and fair,
Fresh'ning his lazy fpirits as he ran,
Unfolded genially and spread the man,
Returning he proclaims by many a grace,
By fhrugs and strange 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 stone,
And toil to polish its rough coat alone.
A juft deportment, manners grac'd with eafe,
Elegant phrafe, and figure form'd to please,
Are qualities that feem to comprehend
Whatever parents, guardians, schools intend;
Hence an unfurnish'd and a liftlefs mind,
Though bufy, trifling; empty, though refin'd;
Hence all that interferes, and dares to clafh
With indolence and luxury, is trash;
While learning, once the man's exclusive pride,
Seems verging faft towards the female fide.
Learning itself receiv'd into a mind
By nature weak, or viciously inclin’d,
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 fcripture warp'd from it's intent.
The carriage bowls along and all are pleas'd
If Tom be fober, and the wheels well greas'd,
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 smootheft way.
When fome hypothefis abfurd and vain
Has fill'd 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 courfe,
And judgment drunk, and bribed to lofe his way,
Winks hard, and talks of darkness at noon day.
A critic on the facred book, fhould be
Candid and learn'd, difpaffionate and free ;
Free from the wayward bias bigots feel,
From fancy's influence, and intemp❜rate zeal.
But above all (or let the wretch refrain,
Nor touch the page he cannot but profane)
Free from the domineering pow'r of luft,
A lewd interpreter is never juft.
How fhall I speak thee, or thy pow'r addrefs,
Thou God of our idolatry, the prefs?
By thee, religion, liberty and laws
Exert their influence, and advance their cause,
By thee, worfe plagues than Pharaoh's land befel,
Diffus'd, make earth the veftibule of hell:
Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wife,
Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies,
Like Eden's dread probationary tree,
Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.
No wild enthufiaft ever yet could reft,
Till half mankind were like himfelf poffefs'd.
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