POETRY AND SCHOOLS. | 209

Theirs buxom health, of rosy hue,
Wild wit, invention ever new,
And lively cheer, of vigour born;
Fhe thoughtless day, the easy night,
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
That fly the approach of morn.”
Mrs. Barry. All good, Mary ; but how fearfully dark
are the stanzas which follow! T can scarcely read that

famous ode without a pang,

Dr, Newman. Have you ever observed how fond our
poets are of school scenes? It is so from Chaucer
down to Crabbe.

Mrs. Barry. Every one remembers Goldsmith’s
schoolmaster.

Barry. Yet no one ever wearies of it :-—

‘* Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in faults
The village all declared how much he knew;
"Twas certain he could write and cipher too;
Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,
And even the story ran that he could gauge;
In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,
For even though vanquished, he could argue still.”

Mr. Mill. Stop there, Mr. Barry, for I am ready to
admit the description to be just.

Barry. Wait till we try our powers in an argument,
sir. Meanwhile, I beg leave, as lately belonging to the
class, to read from this volume Lloyd’s account of a
school-usher. You will remember Lloyd as a friend of
Cowper at Westminster school :—

‘* Were I at once empowered to show,
My utmost vengeance on my foe,

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