It honours him, from tailor’s board kick’d down,
As Mister Dormer to amuse the town;
Falling, he rises:  but a kind there are
Who dwell on former prospects, and despair;
Justly but vainly they their fate deplore,
And mourn their fall, who fell to rise no more. 
   Our merchant Thompson, with his sons around,
Most mind and talent in his Frederick found: 
He was so lively, that his mother knew,
If he were taught, that honour must ensue;
The father’s views were in a different line, —
But if at college he were sure to shine. 
Then should he go—­to prosper who could doubt? 
When schoolboy stigmas would be all wash’d out,
For there were marks upon his youthful face,
’Twixt vice and error—­a neglected case —
These would submit to skill; a little time,
And none could trace the error or the crime;
Then let him go, and once at college, he
Might choose his station—­what would Frederick be. 
   ’Twas soon determined—­He could not descend
To pedant-laws and lectures without end;
And then the chapel—­night and morn to pray,
Or mulct and threaten’d if he kept away;
No! not to be a bishop—­so he swore,
And at his college he was seen no more. 
   His debts all paid, the father, with a sigh,
Placed him in office—­“Do, my Frederick, try: 
Confine thyself a few short months and then -”
He tried a fortnight, and threw down the pen. 
Again demands were hush’d:  “My son, you’re free,
But you’re unsettled; take your chance at sea:” 
So in few days the midshipman, equipp’d
Received the mother’s blessing, and was shipp’d. 
   Hard was her fortune! soon compell’d to meet
The wretched stripling staggering through the street;
For, rash, impetuous, insolent, and vain,
The Captain sent him to his friends again: 
About the Borough roved th’ unnappy boy,
And ate the bread of every chance-employ! 
Of friends he borrow’d, and the parents yet
In secret fondness authorized the debt;
The younger sister, still a child, was taught
To give with feign’d affright the pittance sought;
For now the father cried—­“It is too late
For trial more—­I leave him to his fate,” —
Yet left him not:  and with a kind of joy,
The mother heard of her desponding boy;
At length he sicken’d, and he found, when sick,
All aid was ready, all attendance quick;
A fever seized him, and at once was lost
The thought of trespass, error, crime, and cost: 
Th’ indulgent parents, knelt beside the youth,
They heard his promise and believed his truth;
And when the danger lessen’d on their view,
They cast off doubt, and hope assurance grew; —
Nursed by his sisters, cherish’d by his sire,
Begg’d to be glad, encouraged to aspire,
His life, they said, would now all care repay,
And he might date his prospects from that day;
A son, a brother to his home received,
They hoped for all things, and in all believed.