Drive not a timid infant from his home, in the early spring-time of his life, Commit not that treasure to an hireling, nor wrench the young heart's fibres : In his helplessness leave him not alone, a stranger among strange children, 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? 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 sorrows. And when we sported in that merry sunshine of our life, Sadness a stranger to the heart, and cheerfulness its gay inhabitant. 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. 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 looketli on his little one, as a being of better hope; 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: One while, the fever is to learn, what none will be wiser for knowing, Exploded errors in extinct tongues, and occasions for their use are small; And the bright morning of life, for years of misspent time, 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, Of 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, 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: Then, the Pantheon, and its orgies, initiating docile childhood, 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 abstrusity, Or in those strange Avatars seeking benignant Vishnu, The mines of knowledge are oft laid bare through the forked hazel wand 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, When his reason yieldeth fruit, make thy child thy friend; As an infant, thy mandate was enough, but now let him see thy reasons; 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: And therefore, since capacity and essence differ alike with accident, None but a bigot partisan will hope for impossible unity. Wilt thou ensue peace, nor buffet with the waters of contention, I say not, compromise the right, I would not have thee countenance the wrong, But hear with charitable heart the reasons of an honest judgment; Whiles a man liveth he may mend: count not thy brother reprobate; Neither shalt thou easily unlearn it, though charity ply thee with her preaching; Yet look thou well for reasons, or ever mistrust hath marred thee, Or fear curdled thy blood, or jealousy goaded thee to madness: For a look, or a word, or an act, may be taken well or ill, As construed by the latitude of love, or the closeness of cold suspicion. Better is the wrong with sincerity, rather than the right with falsehood: And a prudent man will not lay siege to the stronghold of ignorant bigotry. To unsettle a weak mind were an easy inglorious triumph, |