Where oppression grindeth without remedy, and cruelty delighteth in smi ting. Wherefore comply with an evil fashion? Is it not to spare thee trouble? Can he gather no knowledge at thy mouth? Wilt thou yield thine honour to another? What can he gain in learning, to equal what he loseth in innocence? Bolder in that mimic world of boys stareth brazen-fronted vice, Than thereafter in the haunts of men, where society doth shame her into corners. My soul, look well around thee, ere thou give thy timid infant unto sor rows. There be many that say, We were happiest in days long past, When our deepest care was an ill-conned book, And when we sported in that merry sunshine of our life, Sadness a stranger to the heart, and cheerfulness its gay inhabitant. But have ye quite forgotten how sorely ye travailed at your tasks, Or the pestilent extract of evil poured into the ear of innocence? It is dinted by every ripple, and a soft wave can smooth its surface; And seldom, when life is mature, and the strength proportioned to the burden, Will the feeling mind, that can remember, acknowledge to deeper anguish, Than when, as a stranger and a little one, the heart first ached with anxiety, And the sprouting buds of sensibility were bruised by the harshness of a school. My soul, look well around thee, ere thou give thine infant unto sorrows knowledge, Which rarely will it meet with so well as among the congregation of his fellows. Only for infancy, fond mother, rend not those first affections; Only for the sensitive and timorous, consign not thy darling unto misery. A man looketh on his little one, as a being of better hope; In himself ambition is dead, but it hath a resurrection in his son; And the rife epidemic of the day shall tincture the stream of education; Who plucketh its unripe fruit to pelt away the birds: But, for its golden apples,—they dry upon the boughs, And few have the courage or the wisdom to eat in spite of fashion: Wasted in following sounds, hath tracked up little sense, Till at noon a man is thrown upon the world, with a mind expert in trifles, Having yet every thing to learn, that can make him good or useful: Or olden time, the fashion was for arms, to make an accomplished slayer, And set gregarious man a-tilting with his fellows; Thereafter, occult sciences, and mystic arts, and symbols, How to exorcise a wizard, and how to lay a ghost; Anon, all for gallantry and presence, the minuet, the palfrey, and the foil, And the grand aim of education was to produce a coxcomb; Soon came scholastical dispute with hydra-headed argument, And the true philosophy of mind confounded in a labyrinth of words; While diligent youth strove hard to render his all unto Cæsar; And now is seen the passion for utility, when all things are accounted by their price, And the wisdom of the wise is busied in hatching golden eggs. Perchance, not many moons to come, and all will again be for ab strusity, Unravelling the figured veil that hideth Egypt's gods; Or in those strange Avatars seeking benignant Vishnu, Kali, and Kamala the fair, and much-invoked Ganesa. (27) THE mines of knowledge are oft laid bare through the forked hazelwand of chance, And in a mountain of quartz we find a grain of gold. Of a truth it were well to know all things, and to learn them all at once, And what, though mortal insufficiency attain to small knowledge of any? Man loveth exclusions delighting in the sterile trodden path, WHEN his reason yieldeth fruit, make thy child thy friend; For a filial friend is a double gain, a diamond set in gold. As an infant, thy mandate was enough, but now let him see tny reasons; Confide in him, but with discretion: and bend a willing ear to his questions. More to thee than to all beside, let him owe good counsel and good guidance; Let him feel his pursuits have an interest, more to thee than to all beside Watch his native capacities; nourish that which suiteth him the readiest; And cultivate early those good inclinations wherein thou fearest he is most lacking: Is he phlegmatic and desponding? let small successes comfort his hope; Is he obstinate and sanguine? let petty crosses accustom him to life. Showeth he a sordid spirit? be quick, and teach him generosity; Inclineth he to liberal excess? prove to him how hard it is to earn. Gather to thy hearth such friends as are worthy of honour and attention; For the company a man chooseth is a visible index of his heart: But let not the pastor whom thou hearest be too much a familiar in thy house, For thy children may see his infirmities, and learn to cavil at his teaching. Consider the station of thy son, and breed him to his fortune with judgment: The rich may profit in much which would bring small advantage to the poor. But with all thy care for thy son, with all thy strivings for his welfare, Expect disappointment, and look for pain: for he is of an evil stock, and will grieve thee. OF TOLERANCE. A wise man in a crowded street winneth his way with gentleness, He knoweth that blind hurry will but hinder, stirring up contention against him, Yet holdeth he steadily right on, with his face to the scope of his pursuit: Have stirred up many zealous souls to fight against imaginary giants: So he leaveth unto prejudice or taste the garb and the manner of her presence, Content to see so nigh the mistress of his love. There is no similitude in nature that owneth not also to a difference, Yea, no two berries are alike, though twins upon one stem; No drop in the ocean, no pebble on the beach, no leaf in the forest, hath its counterpart, No mind in its dwelling of mortality, no spirit in the world unseen: Wilt thou ensue peace, nor buffet with the waters of contention, Wilt thou be counted wise and gain the love of men, Let unobtruded error escape the frown of censure, |