Pl, officious to do, and to volunteer, good services!and thou, thou dreary pile, fit mansion for a Gresham or a Whittington of old, stately House of Merchants; with thy labyrinthine passages, and light-excluding, pent-up offices, where candles for one half the year supplied the place of the sun's light; unhealthy contributor to my weal, stern fosterer of my living, farewell!

Each one of those foul-mouthed, mangy dogs Governs a day (no dog but hath his day): And all the days by them so governed The dog-days hight; infectious fosterers Of meteors from carrion that arise, And putrified bodies of dead men, Are they engender'd to that ugly shape, Being nought else but [ill-]preserv'd corruption.

A great fosterer of the democratic spirit was the old Yale fence, over the departure of which "old grads" are forever shedding bitter tears.

Oh, yes, it was a great fosterer of the democratic spirit.

On the completion of seven years Declan was taken from his parents and friends and fosterers to be sent to study as Colman had ordained.

Without the slightest patronage from the court or substantial encouragement from the fosterers of literary merit, these luckless personages are expected to attempt the same exertions and intense study, which is rewarded, in foreign countries, by the most flattering and judicious attention; as well as by a pension, to cheer the infirmities of old age.