| R | ightly conceive me, and observe me well, |
| I | do what here is done for children’s good. |
| C | hrist in His Gospel (as St. Mark doth tell) |
| H | ath not forbidden children, nor withstood |
| A | ny that should but ask the ready way, |
| R | egarding children, not to say them nay, |
| D | irecting all that came, how faith should be. |
| W | hat they should crave of God’s high majesty, |
| E | ven salvation, through their faithful prayer, |
| S | ending their contemplations into the air, |
| T | o His high throne, whose love so guide us all, |
| E | ven to the end we never cease to call. |
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Children (draw near), attend what I say:
Observe well these precepts and mark them, I pray.
Though many rules formerly have been set out,
To quicken the spirits of children in doubt,
Yet youth is so fickle and loth to be taught,
That being observed, ’tis unseemly and naught.
For children’s instructions in virtue and good,
Four things must be noted and many withstood.