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American Revolution^ I77

11. Harken, therefore ye children to the inltrudion of the digcd., and let the hoary head teach you wifdom; like beacons on the iliorc of the fea, they point to the unv/ary travel- ler, and lliew him the rocks and quickfands that abound in the turbulent ocean of life!

12. Thecounfel they give, is the fruit of experience. Do thou therefore regard it as the oracle of truth! they fpeak of what they have feen, and are quahfied by wifdom to fleer thy bark with fafety into the defired port 1

13. In the morning of thy days, in iht prime of thy life, when thou art releafed from the guardian (hip of thine elders, when thy fa- ther hath paid the great debt of nature, and his bones are covered with the clods of the valley, and thou art about to launch forth in- to the bufy fcenes of hfe,

14. Then is the hour of danger! then will that arch foe to man's happinefs, whofe name is felf-fufficiency, endeavour to perfuade