[Page 128]

A Letter written for my Son to a young Gentleman, who was sent to be educated at the Jesuits College in Flanders.

1 Dear Jack, whilst you thro' Flanders roam,
2 Can you forget your Friends at Home?
3 Say, will your Tutors give you Time
4 To write to Hereticks in Rhyme?
5 A Name they brand us with, dear Youth,
6 And we affirm they injure Truth.
7 The sacred Page before us lies,
8 Which you lock up from vulgar Eyes.
9 In vain to Men a Light is giv'n,
10 To point them out the Path to Heav'n;
11 If, lest their Sight should make them stray,
12 Their Guides alone must see the Way.
[Page 129]
13 I fancy now you answer thus:
14 Lord! what's Divinity to us?
15 This serious Subject is unfit.
16 To exercise a School-boy's Wit;
17 Then talk of other Matters, Con.
18 Inform me how your Class goes on:
19 Are you, poor Boys! at School To-day,
20 Whilst others are allow'd to play?
21 Dear Jack, that is our Case, 'tls true;
22 We envy them, and envy you;
23 You, who may ramble from your Book,
24 To view the Towns Eugenio took;
25 Ev'n now, perhaps, attend the Story,
26 How Marlbro' won immortal Glory;
27 Whilst he, who tells the wondrous Tale,
28 At ev'ry Period turning pale,
29 Still fancies Vengeance o'er his Head,
30 And asks you Are you sure He's dead?
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P.S.
31 I just heard happy News, dear Boy;
32 And Friendship bids me share the Joy:
33 Hibernia has not pray'd in vain;
34
* Lord Carteret declar'd the second Time Lord Lieutenant.
Cyrus will visit her again;
35 Cyrus, long train'd in Wisdom's School,
36 And by
Countess of Granville.
Mandana form'd for Rule.
37
§ Author of the Travels of Cyrus.
Ramsay, we find from whence you drew
38 Those Characters admir'd in you:
39 We
** Lady Carteret.
Cassendana's Virtues trace,
40 And lovely Form in Weymouth's Race.
41 O would Mandana cross the Seas,
42 And hear a People speak her Praise,
43 With Britain vie to hail the Dame,
44 Who,
* Earl of Bath, Father to the Countess of Granville.
Granville, could exalt thy Name,
45 Transmitting down thy Fame with Care,
46 And double Lustre, in her Heir!

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Title (in Source Edition): A Letter written for my Son to a young Gentleman, who was sent to be educated at the Jesuits College in Flanders.
Author: Mary Barber
Themes: travel; religion; education
Genres: epistle
References: DMI 11556

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Barber, Mary, ca. 1690-1757. Poems on Several Occasions [poems only]. London: Printed for C. Rivington, at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1734, pp. 128-130. xlviii,283,[7]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T42622; DMI 519; Foxon p. 45) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [Harding C 3644].)

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Other works by Mary Barber