This page needs to be proofread.
On Time, Death, Friendship.
23
If sterling, store it for thy future use;
'Twill buy thee benefit; perhaps, renown.
Thought, too, deliver'd, is the more possest;
Teaching, we learn; and, giving, we retain
The births of intellect; when dumb, forgot.
Speech ventilates our intellectual fire;
Speech burnishes our mental magazine;
Brightens, for ornament; and whets, for use.
What numbers, sheath'd in erudition, lie,
Plung'd to the hilts in venerable tomes,
And rusted in; who might have borne an edge,
And play'd a sprightly beam, if born to speech;
If born blast heirs of half their mother's tongue!
'Tis thought's exchange, which, like th' alternate push
Of waves conflicting, breaks the learned scum,
And defecates the students standing pool.
In contemplation is his proud resource?
'Tis poor, as proud, by converse unsustain'd.
Rude thought runs wild in contemplation's field;
Converse, the menage, breaks it to the bit
Of due restraint; and emulation's spur
Gives graceful energy, by rivals aw'd.
'Tis converse qualifies for solitude;
As exercise, for salutary rest.
By that untutor'd, contemplation raves;
And Natures fool, by Wisdom is outdone.
Wisdom, tho' richer than Peruvian Mines,
And sweeter than the sweet Ambrosial Hive,
What is she, but the Means of Happiness?
That unobtain'd, than folly more a Fool;
A melancholy Fool, without her Bells.
Friendship, the Means of Wisdom, richly gives
The precious End, which makes our Wisdom wise.
Nature, in Zeal for human Amity,
Denies, or damps, an undivided Joy.
'Twill buy thee benefit; perhaps, renown.
Thought, too, deliver'd, is the more possest;
Teaching, we learn; and, giving, we retain
The births of intellect; when dumb, forgot.
Speech ventilates our intellectual fire;
Speech burnishes our mental magazine;
Brightens, for ornament; and whets, for use.
What numbers, sheath'd in erudition, lie,
Plung'd to the hilts in venerable tomes,
And rusted in; who might have borne an edge,
And play'd a sprightly beam, if born to speech;
If born blast heirs of half their mother's tongue!
'Tis thought's exchange, which, like th' alternate push
Of waves conflicting, breaks the learned scum,
And defecates the students standing pool.
In contemplation is his proud resource?
'Tis poor, as proud, by converse unsustain'd.
Rude thought runs wild in contemplation's field;
Converse, the menage, breaks it to the bit
Of due restraint; and emulation's spur
Gives graceful energy, by rivals aw'd.
'Tis converse qualifies for solitude;
As exercise, for salutary rest.
By that untutor'd, contemplation raves;
And Natures fool, by Wisdom is outdone.
Wisdom, tho' richer than Peruvian Mines,
And sweeter than the sweet Ambrosial Hive,
What is she, but the Means of Happiness?
That unobtain'd, than folly more a Fool;
A melancholy Fool, without her Bells.
Friendship, the Means of Wisdom, richly gives
The precious End, which makes our Wisdom wise.
Nature, in Zeal for human Amity,
Denies, or damps, an undivided Joy.
Joy
