The births of intellect; when dumb, forgot.
Speech ventilates our intellectual fire;
Speech burnishes our mental magazine;
Brightens, for ornament; and whets, for use.
What numbers, sheathed in erudition, lie, 480
Plunged to the hilts in venerable tomes,
And rusted in; who might have borne an edge,
And play’d a sprightly beam, if born to speech;
If born bless’d heirs of half their mother’s tongue!
’Tis thought’s exchange, which, like th’ alternate push