To GREGORY GRIFFIN, Esq.

SIR,

'IF the fincerity of the fol

⚫lowing verfes can recommend them to your no'tice, and the tedioufnefs of them be not foreign

to your plan; I fhall be much pleased to fee ⚫ them in a paper of the MICROCOSM.

'Yours, Sir,
'ETONENSIS.*

Afk ye, companions of my infant years,

Why rife my fighs, why flow my frequent tears?
Ah! know, e're Cynthia fhall her orb compleat,
I leave, unhappy youth, fair Learning's feat:
I leave, Dear Eton, thy maternal arms,

These hallow'd walls, the mufes much lov'd " charms,

To brave the ftorms, ah! many a ftorm I ween That hover round life's fad and gloomy fcene. • But e're I go, accept these artless lays,

That flow fincere, nor afk a poet's praise; If they my boundless gratitude will speak, 'No more I afk, no greater need I feek.

Sadly I go-the truth my tears will tell

Sadly, dear Eton, take a long farewell;

For dawning reason warns, that leaving you,
Tu peace, to innocence, I bid adieu :

Yes,

Yes, it is true, whate'er the world may fay,
Within your walls the moral virtues play;
Infuse their power in ev'ry pupil's breast,

⚫ And give the features health, the conscience, rest.
Oh! if thy precepts would forever live,
Stampt on my breast, & their chafte influence give;
• Still fhould I virtue's warning voice revere,
Nor lend to Syren's fong a wanton ear.
'Amid the frantic mirth, the senseless noise,
• Which headstrong youth too oft mistakes forjoys;
'My inmost thoughts I ftill would turn to thee,
'Call on thy name, and boast my reafon free.
• Accept then, Eton, this my grateful pray❜r,

Long may'ft thou flourish Phoebus' fav'rite care; Long may'ft thou rear on high, the 'antique tow'r', Secure from greedy time's malicious pow'r.

' And thou, fair Thames, who view'ft with conscious pride,

The jocund fports that skirt thy fedgy fide, Farewell! no more fhall I thy banks along, Sooth'd by foft murmurs, pen my uncouth fong; No more by warm ideas rapt, fhall dream,

Of gay poetic ground and facred ftream.

To you, ye much lov'd trees, beneath whose shade, 'Thro' claffic walks, in mufing mood I stray'd; I bid farewell, 'tis tyrant time commands, 'To feek new walks, and fields in other lands:

• To

• To other lands I go; no more shall meet The well-known face, no more the friend shall

greet;

"Yes, dear companions, I shall find but few,

• On life's great stage, such candid friends as you. 'I go, compell'd your friendship to forfake;— • But O! whatever parts in life you take,

O! in his part may each fuccessful prove, • And crown the wifh of my fraternal love. < But what return, what due return can fong, ⚫ Song weak as mine, give them to whom belong • The little gleanings of my claffic lore,

And all my knowledge (were that knowledge. (more)

• Yet I will thank you, nor the thanks refuse, Ye kind Inftructors of my lifping mufe;

Accept the wishes of a grateful heart,

That feels far more than language can impart • Whenever good shall mark my humble way, To you the merit and the thanks I'll pay; • Where'er I go, your memories shall be dear, • I'll love your leffons, and your names revere. From pleasure's paths unwillingly I ftray, The fummer paft, then comes a winter's day Sadly I go-the truth my tears will tell

Sadly, dear Eton, take a long farewell,'

No. XVIII.

OF THE

MICROCOSM.

MONDAY, March 12, 1787.

Fruitur famá fui

TACITUS.

He becomes a witness of the opinions which
others entertain of him.

(8)ERCURY,' fays the fabulift, wish-
拨
ing to know in what estimation he
was held by mankind, put off the

'M

***}** ' infignia of divinity, and affuming "the air and appearance of a mere mortal, entered ⚫ into the shop of a ftatuary. Having purchafed, at a confiderable price, a Jupiter, a Juno, a Fury or two, and fome other nick-nacks of the fame kind "And what," faid he, pointing to a statue ' of himself, which ftood on graceful tiptoe in the

66

window, "what may be the price of that elegant image?" "Sir," replied the artist, "

you have

66 proved fo good a customer to me, for some of

66

my best pieces, that I fhall but do you justice, if "Ithrow you that paltry figure into the bargain."

Pre

Prevalent as every fpecies of curiosity is among mankind, there is none which has fo powerful an influence over every man, as this defire of knowing what the world may think of him. There is none, the gratification of which is fo eagerly desired, or, in general, fo heartily repented of.

A man, in his abfence, will undoubtedly be fpoken of with more freedom than when present. His faults will be more openly pointed out; his vices more strongly cenfured; his whole character will undergo a stricter examination, and will be fcrutinized with lefs referve, and more imparti, ality. Cenfure will not be reftrained by the fear of giving offence; nor praise allured, by the hopes of conciliating affection,

Should he therefore take advantage of his fuppofed abfence, to difcover the true opinions of others with regard to himself, he will run no little rifque of hearing disagreeable truths; which at the fame time that they inform him of foibles in himself, against which he had hitherto fhut his eyes, feldom or never fail to eftrange his esteem from thofe, to whom he is indebted for the information.

Advice, however earnestly fought, however ar dently folicited, if it does not coincide with a

man's