Of Academus-is this falfe or true?

Is Chrift the abler teacher, or the schools?

If Chrift, then why resort at ev'ry turn

To Athens or to Rome, for wifdom short

Of man's occafions, when in him refide

Grace, knowledge, comfort-an unfathom'd store?
How oft, when Paul has ferv'd us with a text,
Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully, preach'd!
Men that, if now alive, would fit content

And humble learners of a Saviour's worth,

Preach it who might. Such was their love of truth, Their thirst of knowledge, and their candour too!

And thus it is. The paftor, either vain

By nature, or by flatt'ry made fo, taught.
Το gaze at his own fplendour, and t'exalt
Abfurdly, not his office, but himself;
Or unenlighten'd, and too proud to learn;
Or vicious, and not therefore apt to teach;
Perverting often, by the stress of lewd

And loofe example, whom he fhould inftruct;
Expofes, and holds up to broad disgrace,

The noblest function, and difcredits much

The brightest truths that man has ever feen.
For ghoftly counfel; if it either fall

Below the exigence, or be not back'd

With show of love, at leaft with hopeful proof
Of fome fincerity on th' giver's part;

Or be dishonour'd, in th' exterior form
And mode of its conveyance, by fuch tricks
As move derifion, or by foppish airs
And hiftrionic mumm'ry, that let down

The pulpit to the level of the stage;
Drops from the lips a difregarded thing.

The weak perhaps are mov'd, but are not taught,
While prejudice in men of ftronger minds

Takes deeper root, confirm'd by what they fee,

A relaxation of religion's hold

Upon the roving and untutor'd heart

Soon follows, and, the curb of confcience fapt,

The laity run wild.-But do they now?

Note their extravagance, and be convinc'd.

As nations, ignorant of God, contrive
A wooden one, fo we, no longer taught,
By monitors that mother church fupplies,
Now make our own. Pofterity will afk
(If e'er pofterity fee verse of mine)

Some fifty or an hundred luftrums hence,
What was a monitor in George's days?
My very gentle reader, yet unborn,

Of whom I needs muft augur better things,
Since heav'n would fure grow weary of a world

Productive only of a race like our's,

A-monitor is wood-plank fhaven thin.

We wear it at our backs. There, closely brac'd

And neatly fitted, it compreffes hard

The prominent and most unfightly bones,

And binds the fhoulders flat. We prove its ufe

Sov'reign and moft effectual to fecure

A form, not now gymnastic as of yore,

From rickets and distortion, else our lot.
But, thus admonish'd, we can walk erect—
One proof at least of manhood! while the friend
Sticks close, a Mentor worthy of his charge.

Our habits, coftlier than Lucullus wore,

And by caprice as multiplied as his,

Just please us while the fashion is at full,

But change with ev'ry moon. The fycophant,
Who waits to dress us, arbitrates their date;

Surveys his fair reversion with keen eye;
Finds one ill made, another obfolete,

This fits not nicely, that is ill conceiv'd;
And, making prize of all that he condemns,
With our expenditure defrays his own.

Variety's the very spice of life,

That gives it all its flavour. We have run Through ev'ry change that fancy at the loom,

Exhausted, has had genius to supply;

And, ftudious of mutation ftill, difcard

A real elegance, a little us'd,

For monftrous novelty and strange difguife.

We facrifice to drefs, till household joys

And comforts ceafe. Drefs drains our cellar dry, And keeps our larder lean; puts out our fires;

And introduces hunger, froft, and wo,

Where peace and hofpitality might reign.

What man that lives, and that knows how to live,
Would fail t'exhibit at the public fhows

A form as fplendid as the proudest there,
Though appetite raife outcries at the cost?

A man o' th' town dines late, but foon enough,
With reasonable forecast and dispatch,

T' insure a fide-box station at half price.
You think, perhaps, fo delicate his dress,
His daily fare as delicate. Alas!

He picks clean teeth, and, bufy as he seems
With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet!
The rout is folly's circle, which fhe draws
With magic wand. So potent is the spell,