But reafon heard, and nature well perus'd, At once the dreaming mind is difabus'd. If all we find poffeffing earth, fea, air, Proofs of the wisdom of th' all-feeing mind, Fit for the power in which he stands array'd, He too might make his author's wisdom clear, This once believ'd, 'twere logic mifapplied In early days the confcience has in most A quicknefs, which in later life is loft, Preferv'd 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 store the nurs'ry, by degrees, With wholesome learning, yet acquir'd with ease. Neatly fecur'd from being foil'd or torn, Beneath a pane of thin translucent horn, A book (to please us at a tender age 'Tis call'd a book, though but a fingle page) Presents the pray'r the Saviour deign'd to teach, Which children use, and parsons-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 marr'd, and who has ranfom'd man. Points, Points, which unless the Scripture made them plain, I name thee not, left so despis'd a name That mingles all my brown with sober grey, The The man, approving what had charm'd the boy, And not with curfes on his art who ftole The gem of truth from his unguarded foul. By kind tuition on his yielding breast, The youth now bearded, and yet pert and raw, That babblers, call'd philofophers, devise, His pride resents the charge, although the proof* Point to the cure, defcribe a Saviour's cross As God's expedient to retrieve his loss, * See 2 Chron. ch. xxvi. ver. 19. The The young apoftate fickens at the view, And hates it with the malice of a Jew. How weak the barrier of mere nature proves, She longs to yield, no fooner woo'd than won. gave Nor could he dare prefumptuously displease The shadows fly, philofophy prevails; Pray'r to the winds, and caution to the waves, Religion makes the free by nature slaves, Priests |