, the World's great Idol we adore,
And knowing this, we seek to know no more;
What Education did at first receive,
Our ripen'd Age confirms us to believe;
The careful Nurse, and Priest is all we need
To learn Opinions and our Country's Creed;
The Parents Precepts early are instill'd,
And spoil the Man, while they instruct the Child.
To what hard Fate is Human kind betray'd,
When thus implicit Faith's a Vertue made?
When Education more than Truth prevails,
And nought is Current but what Custom seals;
Thus from the time we first begin to know,
We live and learn, but not the wiser grow.