Deluded wight! who weens fair peace can spring
Beneath the pompous dome of kesar or of king.
See in each sprite some various bent appear!
These rudely carol, most incondite lay;
Those sauntering on the green, with jocund leer
Salute the stranger passing on his way;
Some builden fragile tenements of clay,

Some to the standing lake their courses bend,
With pebbles smooth at duck and drake to play;
Thilk to the huckster's savoury cottage tend,
In pastry kings and queens th' allotted mite to
spend.

Here, as each season yields a different store,
Each season's stores in order ranged been,
Apples with cabbage-net y-covered o'er,
Galling full sore th' unmoney'd wight, are seen,
And gooseberry, clad in livery red or green;
And here of lovely dye the catherine pear,
Fine pear! as lovely for thy juice I ween:
O may no wight e'er pennyless come there, [care!
Lest smit with ardent love he pine with hopeless

See! cherries here, ere cherries yet abound,
With thread so white in tempting posies tied,
Scattering like blooming maid their glances round,
With pamper'd look draw little eyes aside,
And must be bought, though penury betide;
The plum all azure, and the nut all brown,
And here, each season, do those cakes abide
Whose honour'd names th' inventive city own,
Rendering through Britain's isle Salopia's praises
known*.

Shrewsbury cakes.

Admir'd Salopia! that with venial pride
Eyes her bright form in Severn's ambient wave,
Fam'd for her loyal cares in perils tried,

Her daughters lovely, and her striplings brave:
Ah! midst the rest, may flowers adorn his grave
Whose art did first these dulcet cates display!
A motive fair to Learning's imps he gave,
Who cheerless o'er her darkling region stray,
Till Reason's morn arise, and light them on their
Shenstone.

way.

DEFECTS OF EDUCATION.

'Tis granted, and no plainer truth appears,
Our most important are our earliest years:
The Mind, impressible and soft, with ease
Imbibes and copies what she hears and sees,
And through life's labyrinth holds fast the clew,
That Education gives her, false or true.
Plants rais'd with tenderness are seldom strong;
Man's coltish disposition asks the thong;
And without discipline the fav'rite child,
Like a neglected forester, runs wild.
But we, as if good qualities would grow
Spontaneous, take but little pains to sow;
We give some 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 Isis, and thence home; And thence with all convenient speed to Rome, With rev'rend tutor clad in habit lay,

To tease for cash, and quarrel with all day;

With memorandum-book for ev'ry town,

And ev'ry post, and where the chaise broke down;
His stock, a few French phrases got by heart,
With much to learn, but nothing to impart.
The youth, obedient to his sire's commands,
Sets off a wand'rer into foreign lands.
Surpris'd at all they meet, the gosling pair,
With awkward gait, stretch'd neck, and silly stare,
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 observ'd within.

Ere long some bowing, smirking, smart abbé
Remarks two loit'rers, that have lost their way;
And being always prim'd with politesse
For men of their appearance and address,
With much compassion undertakes the task,
To tell them more than they have wit to ask;
Points to inscriptions wheresoe'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 some Cæsar shows-
Defective only in his Roman nose;
Exhibits elevations, drawings, plans,
Models of Herculanean pots and pans;
And sells them medals, which, if neither rare
Nor ancient, will be so, preserv'd with care.
Strange the recital! from whatever cause
His great improvement and new light he draws,
The squire, once bashful, is shamefac'd no more,
But teems with pow'rs he never felt before:
Whether increas'd momentum, and the force,
With which from clime to clime he sped his course,

(As axles sometimes kindle as they go)

Chaf'd him, and brought dull nature to a glow;

Or whether clearer skies and softer air,

That make Italian flow'rs so sweet and fair,
Fresh'ning his lazy spirits as he ran,

Unfolded genially and spread the man;
Returning he proclaims by many a grace,
By shrugs 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 wisdom falls before exterior grace:
We slight the precious kernel of the stone,
And toil to polish its rough coat alone.
A just deportment, manners grac'd with ease,
Elegant phrase, and figure form'd to please,
Are qualities, that seem to comprehend
Whatever parents, guardians, schools, intend;
Hence an unfurnish'd and a listless mind,
Though busy, trifling; empty, though refin'd;
Hence all that interferes, and dares to clash
With indolence and luxury, is trash:
While learning, once the man's exclusive pride,
Seems verging fast towards the female side.

Cowper.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN WISDOM AND

KNOWLEDGE.

THE moral poets (nor unaptly) feign,

That by lame Vulcan's help, the pregnant brain Of sovereign Jove brought forth, and at that birth Was born Minerva, lady of the earth.

O strange divinity! but sung by rote; Sweet is the tune but in a wilder note. The moral says, all wisdom that is given

To hood-wink'd mortals, first proceeds from heaven;
Truth's errour, wisdom's but wise insolence,
And light's but darkness, not deriv'd from thence;
Wisdom's a strain transcends morality,

No virtue's absent, wisdom being by.
Virtue by constant practice is acquir'd,
This, this by sweat unpurchas'd is inspir'd:
The masterpiece of knowledge, is to know
But what is good from what is good in show,
And there it rests; Wisdom proceeds, and chooses
The seeming evil, th' apparent good refuses;
Knowledge descries alone; Wisdom applies;
That makes some fools, this maketh none but wise;
The curious hand of Knowledge doth but pick
Bare simples, Wisdom pounds them for the sick;
In my afflictions, Knowledge apprehends
Who is the author, what the cause and ends,
It finds that patience is my sad relief,

And that the hand that caus'd can cure my grief;
To rest contented here, is but to bring
Clouds without rain, and heat without a spring:
What hope arises hence? the devils do
The very same: they know and tremble too;
But sacred Wisdom doth apply that good,
Which simple Knowledge barely understood;
Wisdom concludes, and in conclusion proves
That wheresoever God corrects he loves:
Wisdom digests what Knowledge did but taste;
That deals in futures, this in things are past:
Wisdom's the chart of Knowledge, which, without
That guide, at random's wreck'd on every doubt;