The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
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The Age Reviewed | ||
Is our's a bloated, or a brazen age?
“A golden one!” cries Learning in a rage;—
“On shelf and stall my page reveals its light,
And flimsy scribble is the boundless right!”
Let infants puke for thee, Sir Richard, praise,—
Let school-room walls be verdant with thy bays;
Whose cogent slyness and magnetic quill,
Have tempted Knowledge from her Alpine hill;
Though Newton's
genius foiled thy bootless plot,
Sweet Knight, thou'lt live, when Newton is forgot;
In fame more glorious than all-gracious Bell,—
Thou'lt vamp for babies—while thy pamphlets sell!
“A golden one!” cries Learning in a rage;—
“On shelf and stall my page reveals its light,
And flimsy scribble is the boundless right!”
Let infants puke for thee, Sir Richard, praise,—
Let school-room walls be verdant with thy bays;
Whose cogent slyness and magnetic quill,
Have tempted Knowledge from her Alpine hill;
124
Sweet Knight, thou'lt live, when Newton is forgot;
In fame more glorious than all-gracious Bell,—
Thou'lt vamp for babies—while thy pamphlets sell!
This Cockney Knight attempted to upset Newton's glory, and raise a pedestal for himself on its ruins; but it did not do. Sir Richard is another of the hypocritical patriots, who gull the public opinion by puffing off their services to the rising generation. The matter is plain enough, if plain sense were but applied. Sir R. was, and is, a tradesman. He hit upon the Interrogatory plan, as a tradesman, namely, to put money in his pocket. This was very laudable; but when he boasts of his services, as if they really proceeded from the purest philanthropy, he is more disgusting than impudent. He could do no more, if he had given his baby edition of vamped pamphlets to all the charity schools in the kingdom.
The Age Reviewed | ||