.Nw.MTA1NQ

[some text pulled from printed copy] The Birch [Ye] worthies, in trust for the school or the church, Pray hear me descant on the virtues of Birch. Tho the Oak be the prince and the pride of the grove, An emblem of pow'r and the favourite of Jove; Tho Phoebus with Laurel his temples have bound, And with chaplets of Poplar Alcides be crowned; Tho Pallas the Olive has graced with her choice, And old mother Cybele in Pines may rejoice; Tho' Bacchus delights in the Ivy and Vine And Venus her garlands with Myrtle entwine; Yet the Muses declare, after diligent search, No tree can be found to compare with the Birch [Overwritten: British] [The] Birch they aver, is the true tree of knowledge Revered by each school, and remember'd at College, Tho Virgil's fam'd tree may produce, as its fruit A crop of vain dreams , and strange whims from each shoot; Yet the Birch on each bough, on the top of each switch, Bears the essence of grammar, the 8 parts of speech 'Mongst the leaves in concealed, more than mem'ry can mention All cases, all genders, all forms of declension. Nine branches when cropt by the hands of the nine, Each duly arranged in a parallel line, Tied up in nine folds of a mystical string. And soak'd for nine hours in cold Helicon's spring, Is a sceptre compos'd for a Pedagogue's hand Like the Frasces of Rome, a true badge of command. The sceptre thus finished, like Moses's rod From flints can draw years, and give life to a clod.