If, then, the  man can sometimes err,
And make mistakes on the World's Theatre,
Desert himself, as various passions call,
And prove at last no character at all;
We ask your candour, if in us appears
Th'  growth of unexperienc'd years;
Tho' buds, yet Learning like the sun has power
To rear the stem, and paint the future flower!
If JOHN should not each stroke of guilt impart,
Nor CONSTANCE triumph o'er the feeling heart,
Think, in Life's happy morn we cannot know
The sad extent of baseness or of woe!
Boys as we are, to us each scene is new,
If sometimes wrong, e'en there we copy
To bold attempts be then indulgence shewn,
And learn to pity faults so like your own.