The following Verses are to be considered as a small tribute of justice to merit, of esteem to virtue, and of gratitude for instruction.

Say, say, My Friend, can any meed
The sense of conscious worth exceed;
'Tis thine the happiness to know,
That virtue's gen'rous toils bestow:
'Tis thine to form ingenuous youth
To ancient discipline and truth;
Thine first to light the sacred fire,
That only shall with life expire,
And train to freedom's glorious cause
The future guardians of the laws.
Not mere to form the sage thy plan,
To form the citizen and man:
In vain in learning we excel,
The highest praise is doing well.
Though small the glory and reward,
Not useful less thy task, nor hard,
With ev'ry youthful fault to strive,
The lazy rouze, th' unwilling drive:
At once regard, and fear to draw,
Inspire with love, and strike with awe;
To mark which way the tempers tend,
And to thy purposes to bend;
Instruction so to all to give,
That each may benefit receive;
The latent energy call forth,
And ripen into action worth.
Nor, limited to duty's rule,
Conclude thy labours with the school;
Thy time works more of use than fame,
And difficult, as useful, claim,
The mine of science to explore,
And free the metal from the ore;
Through many a page the search pursue
To bring some useful truth to view,
And in few lines the sense comprise,
That scatter'd o'er a volume lies.
Still on the stretch thy active mind
To one grand object is confin'd,
With skill and care to form a race,
Whose conduct may their country grace. —
If, after all thy toils, a few
Deny thy merits honour due,
Let those, who own'd thy forming hand,
And now in life distinguish'd stand,
The bliss and honour of our land,
Let those, for best they know, declare,
How much is owing to thy care.