The Old Gentleman's WISH,
OR
The Reformed Old Gentleman.
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I am grown old, Alas!
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My seventy years are past:
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I Wish with all my heart,
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I may grow wise at last.
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2. When I was past a Child,
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I left the Grammer-school,
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(Fond Parents!) Ah! I Wish,
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I had not been a Fool.
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3. Having my liberty,
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And Money, every day,
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(I Wish none wou'd do thus)
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Ah! I did game and play.
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4. Youth is the seeding time,
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From whence good fruits shou'd grow
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I brought forth noisom weeds:
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I Wish I'd not done so.
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5. I kept ill Company,
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My Hawks, and Hounds, and worse:
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One can't to enemies
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Wish any greater Curse.
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6. I and my bonny Fellowes
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Had many a vagary,
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And after drank down sin,
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In Clarret and Canary.
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7. But now I see my faults,
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How I have gone astray:
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That God wou'd set me right,
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I hugely Wish and Pray.
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8. O Happy Change! When Grace
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Assisting Industry,
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Preventing, following Grace
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(I Wish) may wants supply.
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9. My old Companions
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Themselves from me withdraw:
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I sadly Wish, I had
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Their Faces never saw.
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10. O Time! most precious Time!
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I Wish thee come again.
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Impossible it is:
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To Wish it is in vain.
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11. Time past cannot return:
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You can't undo, what's done.
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'Tis as hard, as in's course
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To stop the Giant Sun.
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12. Yet I do Wish and pray,
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My Time I may redeem,
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By double Diligence:
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This a Wise Wish will seem.
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13. And now I entertain
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A Sober, Learned Friend,
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To'improve me, and I Wish
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To keep him to my end.
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14. We read the Psalmodie,
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And Gospel, every Day:
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At the Church and at home,
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We Two together pray.
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15. We love God's Ministers,
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Obey in every thing:
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We dayly pray and Wish
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All Honour to the King.
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16. My Noble Friends, do ye
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Get such a Guide, and then
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You may be what I Wish,
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Right good Old Gentlemen.
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