Who travels in religious jars,
(Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;)
Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars,
In ocean wide or sinks or strays.
But grant our hero's hope, long toil
And comprehensive genius crown,
All sciences, all arts his spoil,
Yet what reward, or what renown?
Envy, innate in vulgar souls,
Envy steps in and stops his rise,
Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls
His lustre, and his worth decries.
He lives inglorious or in want,
To college and old books confin'd;
Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant,
Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind:
Yet left content a genuine Stoick he,
Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.
In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, _arts_ in the fifth stanza is
changed into _hearts_. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of
the first four lines of the last stanza, not from _Dodsley's
Collection_, but from an earlier one, called _The Grove_.
'Inglorious or by wants inthralled,
To college and old books confined,
A pedant from his learning called,
Dunces advanced, he's left behind.
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