Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/231

Now to repent, and starve at leisure left,
Of misery's last comfort, hope, bereft!
’These failed for want of good advice,' you cry,
’Because at first they fixed on no employ.’
Well then, let's draw the prospect, and the scene
To all advantage possibly we can.
The world lies now before you, let me hear
What course your judgment counsels you to steer;
Always considered, that your whole estate,
And all your fortune lies beneath your hat.
Were you the son of some rich usurer,
That starved and damned himself to make his heir,
Left nought to do, but to inter the sot,
And spend with ease what he with pains had got;
'Twere easy to advise how you might live,
Nor would there need instruction then to give.
But you, that boast of no inheritance,
Save that small stock which lies within your brains,
learning must be your trade, and, therefore, weigh
With heed how you your game the best may play;
Bethink yourself awhile, and then propose
What way of life is fitt'st for you to choose.
If you for orders and a gown design,
Consider only this, dear friend of mine,
The church is grown so overstocked of late,
That if you walk abroad, you'll hardly meet
More porters now than parsons in the street.
At every comer they are forced to ply
For jobs of hawkering divinity;
And half the number of the sacred herd
Are fain to stroll and wander unpreferred.
If this, or thoughts of such a weighty charge,
Make you resolve to keep yourself at large,
For want of better opportunity,
A school must your next sanctuary be.
Go, wed some grammar-bridewell, and a wife,
And there beat Greek and Latin for your life;