Not that he thought this short

essay

Yet friendship forms the bliss above; A prologue needful to his play

And, l'fe, what art thou without love!
No, trust iné, says our learned letter,

Our hero, who had heard apart,
He knew the virtuous sex inuch better : Felt something moving in his heart;
But these he held as specious arts,

But quickly, with disdain, suppress'd
To show his own superior parts ;

The virtue rising in his breast; The form of decency to shield,

And first he feignil to laugh aloud ; And give a just presence to yield."

Aud next, approaching smild and bow'd: Thus finishing his courtly play,

Madam, you must not think me rude; He mark'd the he'rite of a day;

Good manners never can intrude; With careless impudence drew near,

I vow I come thro' pure good nature And whisper'd Plebrew in her ear;

(Upon my soul a charming creature!), A lint, which like the mason's sign,

Are these the comforts of a wife? The conscious can alone divine.

This careful, cloister'd, moping life?
The Hutt'ring nymph, expert at feigning,

No doubt that odious thing, callid Duty,
Cried, Sir?-pray, Sir, explain your meaning Is a sweet province for a beauty.
Go prate to those chat may endure yel

Thou

pretiy ignorance! thy will То me this rudeness! – I'll assure ye! Is measur'd to thy want of skill; Then off she glided like a swallow,

That good old-fashion'd dame, thy mother, As saying - you guess where to follow. Has taught thy infant years no other : To such as know the party set,

The greatest ill in the creation Tis needless to declare they met;

Is sure the want of education. The parson's baro, as authors mention, But think ye-tell ine without fcigning Confess'd the fair had apprehension.

Have all these charms no farther meaning! Her honor there sucure from stain,

Daine nature, if you don't forget her, She held all farther trifling vain ;

Might teach your ladyship much better. No more affected to be coy,

For shame! reject this mean employment, But rush'd, licentious, on the joy.

Enter the world and taste enjoyment, Hist, lore! the male companion cried ;

Where time by circling bliss we measure ; Retire awhile, I fear we 're spied,

Beality was form'd alone for pleasure : Nor was the caution vain : he saw

Come, prove the blessing, follow me, A Turtle rustling in the straw;

Be wise, be happy, and be free. While o'er her callow brood she hung,

Kind Sir, replied our natron chaste, And fondly thus address'd her young :

Your zeal seems pretty much in haste; Ye tender objects of my care!

I own, the fondness to be blest Peace, peace, ye little helpless pair ;

Is a deep, thirst in ev'ry breast ; * Anón he comes, your gentle sire,

Of blessings too I have my store, And brings you all your hearts require. Yet quarrel not should Hcaven give more; For us, his infants, and his bride,

Then

prove the change to be cxpedient, For us, with only love to guide,

And think me; Sir, your most obedient. Oar lord assumes an eagle's speed,

Here turning, as in one inferior, And like a lion llares to bleed.

Our gallant spoke, and smil'd superior: Nor yet by wintry skies confin'd,

Methinke, to quit your boaster station He mounis upon the rudest wind,

Requires a world of hesitation ; From danger tears the vital spoil,

Where brats and bonds are held a blessing, And with affection sweetens toil.

The case, I doubt, is past redressing:
Ah cease, too vent'rous, cease to dare; Why, child, suppose the joys I mention
In thine, our dearer safety spare !

Were the mere fruits of my invention,
From him, ye crnel falcous, stray ;

You've cause sufficient for your carriage, And turn, ve fowlers, far away!

In fying from the curse of marriage ; Should I survive to see the day

Thai sly decoy; with varied snares,
That tears me from myself away;

That takes your widgeons in by pairs in
That cancels all that leaven could give, Alike to husband and to wife,
The life by which alone I live,

The cure of love, and bane of life;
Alas, how more than lost were I,

The only method of forecasting, Who in the thought already die.

To make inisfortune firm and lasting;
Ye powr's whom men and birds obey, The sin, by Heaven's peculiar sentence,
Great rulers of your creatures, say,

Unpardon'd through a life's repentance.
Why mourning comes, by bliss convey'd, It is the double snake that weds
And even the sweets of love altay'd ?

A cominon tail to diff'rent heads,
Where grows enjoyment, tall and fair, That' lead the carcase still astray,
Around it twines entangling care;

By dragging each a different way. While fear for whiat our souls possess

of all the ills that oray attend me, Enervates ev'ry pow'r to bless ;

From marriage, inighty gods defend me!

Give

2

3

Give me franki nature's wild demesne, The Source of endless good above And boundless tract of air serene,

Shot down his spark of kindling love; Where fancy, eyer wing’d. for change, Touch'd by the all enlivening frame, Delights to sport, delights to range :

Then motion first exulting came; There, Libery.!. 10. thee is owing

Each atom sought its sep'rate class Whate'er of Bliss is worth bestowing:

Through many a fair enamor'd mass; Delights still varied, and divine,

Love cast the central charın around,
Sweet goddess of the hills ! are thine.

And with eternal nuptials bmund.
What'say you now, you. pretty pink, you ? Then form and order o'er the sky,
Have I for once spoke reason, think you? First train'd their bridal pomp on high;
You take me now for no ronancer --

The gun display'd his orb to sight,
Come, never study for an answer !

And burnt with hymencal light. Away, cast ev'ry care behind ye,

Hence nature's virgin-womb conceir’d, And fy where joy alone shall find ye. And with the genial burden beav'd;

Soft yet, returned our female fencer; Forth came the oak, her first-born heir,
A question more, or so — and then, Sir. And scal'd the breathing steep of air;
You've rallied me with sense exceeding, Then infant stems of various use,
With much fine wit, and better breeding ; Imbib'd her soft maternal juice;
But
pray;

Sir, how do you contrive it? The flow'rs, in early bloom disclos'd,
Do those of your world never wive it? l'pon her fragrant breast repos'd;
“No, no." "How then? “Why, dare I tell ? Within her warm embraces grew
" What does the business full as well."

A race of endless form and hue: Do you

ne'er love? " An hour at leisure." Then pour'd her lesser offspring round, Have you no friendships?." Yes, for pleasure." And fondly cloth'd the parent ground. No care for little oues !! We get 'em ; Nor here alone the virtue reign'd, “ The rest the mothers mind and let 'em." By matter's cumbring form detaind;

Thou, wretch, rejoin'd the kindling Dove, But thence, subliming and refin’d,
Quite lost to life, as lost to love !

Aspir'd, and reach'd its kindred Mind,
Whene'eț misfortune comes, how just! Caught in the fond celestial fire,
And come misfortunes surely. nrust.

The mind perceiv'd unknown desire ;
In the dread season of disinay,

And now with kind eflusion flow'd,
In that your hour of trial, say,

And now with cordial ardors glow'd,
Who then shall prop your sinking heart? Beheld the sympathetic fair,
Who bear affliction's weightier part ?

And lov'd its own resemblance there;
Say, when the black-bow'd welkin bends, On all with circling radiance shone,
And winter's gloomy form impends,

But centring fix'd on one alone;
To mourning turus all transient cheer, There clasp'd the heaven-appointed wife,
And blaşts the melancholy year ;

And doubled every joy of life.
For times at no persuasion stay,

Here ever blessing, ever blest Nor vice aun sind perpetual May;

Resides this beauty of the breast; Then where 's that tongue by folly fed, As from his palace here the god That soul of pertness whither fed?

Still beams effulgent bliss abroad; All shrunk within thy lonely nest,

Ilere

gems his own eternal round, Forlorn, abandon'd, and unblest.

The ring by which the world is bound; No friends, by cordial bunds allied,

Here bids bis seat of empire grow, Shall seek thy cold unsocial side ;

And builds his little heaven below. No chirping.prattlers to delight,

The bridal partners thus allied, Shall turn the long-enduring night;

And thus in sweet accordance tiel. No bride her words of balm impart,

One body, heart, and spirit live, And warın thee at her constant heart.

Enrich'd by ev'ry joy they give; Freedom, restrain'd by reason's force,

Like echo, from her vocal hold, Is as the sun's unvarying course;

Return'd in inusic twenty-fold. Benignly active, sweetly bright,

Their union, firm and undecay'd, Affording warmth, affording light;

Nor tiune can sbake, nor pow'r invade; But, torn from virtue's sacred rules,

But, as the stem and scion stand
Becomes a comet, gaz'd by fools,

Ingrafted by a skilful hand,
Foreboding cares, and storms, and strife, They check the tempest's wint'ry rage,
And fraught with all the plagues of life. And bloom and strengthen into age.
Thou fool! by union ev'ry creature

A thousand amities unknown,
Subsists, through universih liature;

And pow'rs perceiv'd by love alone, And this, to beings void of mind,

Endearing looks and chaste desire, Is wedlock of a meaner kind.

Fan and support the mutual fire; While womb'd in space, primæval clay Whose fame, perpetual as refind, A yet unfasijop'd embryo lay,

Is fed by an imiportal rind,

tor

Nor rct the nuptial sanction ends ·

Me too to your protection take, Like Nile it opens, and descends;

And spare ine for my husband's sake. Which, by apparent windings led,

Let one unruffled, calin delight The trace to its celestial head.

The loving and belov'd unite ; The fire, first springing from above,

One pure desire our bosoms warm, Becomes the source of life and love,

One will direct, one wish informı; And gives his filial heir to flow

Through life, one inutual aid sustain; In fondness down on sous below :

In death, one

aceful grave contain. Thus, rolld in one conunued tide,

While swelling with the darling theme, To time's extremest verge they glide ;

Her accents pour'd an endless stream, While kindred streams on either hand, The well-known wings a sound impart, Branch forth in blessings o'er the land. That reach'd her ear, and touch'd her heart, Thce, aretch! no lisping babe shall naine, Quick dropp?d the music of her tongue, No late-returning brother claim,

And forth with eager joy she sprung. No kinsman on thy sight rejoice,

As swift her entring consort few, No sister greet thy eni'ring voice;

And plum'd, and kindled at the view; With partial eyes no parent see,

Their wings, their souls, embracing meet, And bless their years restor'd in thee. Their lacarts with answering measure beat ; In age rejected or declin'd,

Half lost in secret sweets, and bless'd Au alien even among thy kind,

With raptures felt, but ne'er express'd. The partner of thy scorn'd embrace

Straight to her humble roof she led Shall play the wanton in thy face;

The partner of her spotless bed; Each spark unplume thy litile pride,

Her

young, a flutt'ring pair, arise, All friendship fly the faithless side.

Their welcome sparkling in their eyes ; Thy name shall like thy carcase rot,

Transported, to their sire they bound,
In sickness spurn'd, in death forgot.

And hang with speechless action round.
All-giving Pow'r! great Source of life! In pleasure wrapt the parents stand,
Oh hear the parent, hear the wise!

And see their little wings expand ;
That life thou lendest from above,

The sire his life-sustaining prize Though little, make it large in love; To each expecting bill applics, Obid my feeling heart expand

There fondly pours the wheaten spoil,
To ev'ry claim, on ev'ry hand;

With transport giv'n, tho' won with toil;
To those from whom ny days I drew, While all-collected at the sight,
To these in whom those days renew,

And silent through supreme delight,
To all my kin, however wide,

The fair higlı heaven ot bliss beguiles, In cordial warmth as blood allied,

And on her lord and infants smiles. To friends with steely fetters twin'd,

The Sparrow, whose attention hung And to the cruel, not unkind !

Upon the Dove's enchanting tongue, But chief the lord of my desire,

of all his little slights disarı'd, My life, myself, my soul, my sire,

And from hiniself by virtue charm'd,
Friends, children, all that wish can claim, When now he saw what only seem'd
Chaste passion clasp, and rapture name -- A fact, so late a fable deem'd,
0

spare him, spare him, gracious Pow'r! His soul to envy he resign’d, 0 give him to my latest hour!

His hours of folly to the wind; Let me my length of life employ

In secret wish a Turtle too,
To give my soul cujoyment joy.

And, sighing to himself, withdrew.
His love let mutual love excite,
Tum all my cares to his delight;

$ 294.

The Femalc Scducers." And ev'ry needless blessing spare,

"I'is said of widow, maid, and wife, Wherein my darling wants a share.

That honor is a woman's life; When he with graceful action woos,

Unhappy sex! who only claim And sweetly bills, and fondly coos,

A being in the breath of fame; Ah! deck me, to his eyes alone,

Which, tainted, not the quick’ning gales With charms attractive as his own;

That sweep Sabæa's spicy vales, And, in my circling wings caress'd,

Nor all the healing sweets restore, Give all the lover to my breast,

That breathe along Arabia’s shore. Then in our chaste connubial bed,

The traveller, if he chance to stray, My bosom pillow'd for his head,

May turn uncensur'd to his

way; His eyes with blissful slumbers close, Polluted streams again are pure, And watch, with ine, niy lord's repose; And deepest wounds admit a cure: You peace around his temples twine, But woman no redemption knows, And love him with a love like mine.

The wounds of honor never close. And, for I know his gen’sous flame,

Tho' distant ev'ry hand to guide, Beyond whate'er my sex can claim,

Nor skillid on lịfe's tempestuous tide,

FABLE XV.

If once her feeble bark recede,

A stream call'd Life, across it glides, Or deviate from the course decreed,

And equally the land divides ; In vain slie seeks the friendless shore,

And here, of vice the province lies Her swifter folly flies before !

And there the hills of virtue rise. The circling ports against her close,

Cpon a mountain's airy stand, And shut the wand'rer' froin repose;

Whose summit look'd to either land, Till, by conflicting waves oppress'd,

An ancient pair their dwelling chose, Her found'ring pinnace sinks to rest.

As well for prospect is repose ; Are there no offerings to atone

For mutual faith they long were famid, For but a single error ? -None.

And Temp'rance and Religion nam'd, Tho' woman is avow'd, of old,

Anam'rous progeny divine Nay daughter of celestial mould,

Confess'd the honor of their line, Her temp'ring not without allay,

But in a little daughter fair And fori'd but of the finer clay,

Was centred more than half their care ; We challenge from the mortal daine

For Ilearen to gratulate her birih, The strength angelic natures clajın;

Gave signs of future joy to earth; Nay more -- for sacred stories tell,

White was the robe this infant wore, That even immortal angels fell.

And chastity the name she bore. Whatever fills the teeming sphere

As now the maid in stature grew Of humid earth, and ambient air,

(A flow'r just op'ning to her view) With varying elements envued,

Oft through her native lawns she stray'd, Was form'd to fall, and rise renew'd,

And wrestling with the launbkins play'd ; 'The stars no fix'd duration know;

Her looks diffusive sweets bequeath'd, Wide oceans ebb, again to flow;

The breeze grew purer as she breatlıd; The moon repletes her waning face,

The morn hier radiant blush assum'd, All beauteous from her late disgrace; The spring with earlier fragrance bloom'd; And suns, that mourn approaching night, And nature yearly took delight, Refulgent rise with new-born light.

Like her to dress 'the world in white. In vain may death and time subdue,

But when her rising form was seen While nature' mints her race anew ;

To reach the crisis of fifteen, And holds sone vital spark apart,

Her parents up the mountain's head Like virtue, hid in (a 'ry heart.

With anxious step their darling led; "Dis hence reviving warmth is seen,

By turns they satch'd her to sheir breast, To clothe a naked world in green.

And thus the fears of age express'd ; No longer barr') by winter's cold,

() joyful cause of many a care! Again the gates of life unfold ;

O daughter too divinely fair! Again each insecerie: bis wing,

Yon world, on this important day, And lifts fresh pinions on the spring;

Demands thee w a dang'rous way; Again from ev'ry latent root

A painful journey all must go, The latent stem and tendril shoot,

W bose doübied period none can know ; Exbaliny incense to the skies,

Whose due direction who can find, Again to perish, and to rise.

Where reason 's mute, and sense is blind! And must weak woman then disown Ah, what uvequal leaders these, The change to wbich a world is prone ? Thro' sucher wide; perplexing naze ! In one ineridian brightness shine,

Then mark the warnings of ihe wise, And ne'er like cy'ning sums decline?

And lean what love and years advise. Resolvid and firm alone? Is this

Far to the right thy prospect bend, What we demand of woman? -- Yes. Where yonder low'ring hills ascend; But should the spark yf vestal fire

Lo! there the arduous path 's in vieve In some unguarded hour expire;

Which Virtue and her son pursue ; Or should the nightly thicf invade

With toil o'er less'ning earth they rise, Ilesperia's chaste and sacred shade,

And gain, and gain upon the skies. Of all the blooming spoil possess'd,

Narrow's the way her chillren tread, The dragon Ilonor charm'd to rest,

No walk for pleasure smoothly spread, Shall virtue's Aame no more return ?

But roughi, and difficult, and steep, No more with virgin splendor burn?

Painful 10 climb, and hard to keep. No more the ravag'd garden blow

Fruits immature those lands dispense, With spring's succeeding blossom? - No.

A food indelicate to sense, Pity may mourn, but not restore ;

Of taste opleasant : yet from those And woman talls -- to rise no more!

Pure tealili, with cheerful vigor, Hows; Within this sublunary sphere

And strengil, un feeling of decay, A country lies — no maiter where;

Throughout the long laborious way. The clime may readily be found

Hence, as they scale that heavenly road, By all who tread poetic ground;

Eacir limb is lighteu'd of its load;

From

From earth refining still they go,

Forth from her sacred eyelids sent,
And leave the mortal weight below,

Like morn, fore-running radiance went,
Then spreads the strait, the doubtful clears, While Honor, handmaid late assign'd,
And smooth the rugged path appears ; Upheld her lucid train behind.
For custoun turns fatigue to ease,

Awe-struck, the much-admiring crowd
And, taught by virtue, pain can please Before the virgin vision bow'd;
At length the toilsome journey o'er,

Gaz'd with an ever-new delight,
And near the bright celestial shore,

And caught fresh virtue at the sight; A gulf, black, fearful, and profound,

For not of earth's unequal frame Appears, of either world the bound,

They deem the heaven-compounded Dames
Through darkness leading up to light; If matter, sure the most relin'd,
Sense backwards shrinks, and shuns the sight; High wrought, and temper'd into mind,
For there the transitory train

Some darling daughter of the day,
Of time, and form, and care, and pain, And bodied by her native ray,
And matter's gross incumb'ring inass,

Where'er she passes, thousands bend,
Man's late associates, cannot pass ;

And thousands where she moves attend;
Bat, sinking, quit th' immortal charge, Her ways observant eyes confessing
And leave the wond'ring soul at large; Her steps pursuing praises bless"
Lightly she wings her obvious way,

While to the elevated Maid
And wingles with eternal day.

Oblations, as to heaven, are paid.
Thither, oh thither wing thy speed,

"T'was on an ever-blithsome day,
Tha' pleasure charm, or pain impede; The jovial birth of rosy May,
To such th 'all-bounteous Pow's has given, When genial warmth, no more supprest,
For present earth, a future heaven;

Now melts the frost in ev'ry breast.
For trivial loss, unnieasur'd gain ;

The cheek with secret Alushing dyes, And endless bliss for transient pain.

And looks kind things from chastest eyes; Then fear, ah! fear to turn thy sight The sun with healthier visage glows, Where yonder Aow'ry fields invite :

Aside his clouded kerchief throws. Wide on the left the pathway bends,

And dances up th' ethereal plain, And with pernicious ease descends !

Where late he us'd to climb with pain, There, sweet to sense, and fair to show, While nature, as from bonds set free, New-planted Edens seem to blow,

Springs out, and gives a loose to glee. Trees that delicious poison bear;

And now, for momentary rest, For death is vegetable there.

The nymph her travell'd step repressid, Hence is the frame of health unbrac'd, Just turn'd to view the stage attain'd, Each sinew slack’ning at the taste,

And gloried in the height she gain'd. The soul to passion yields her throne,

Outstretch'd before her wide survey
And sees with organs not her own;

The realms of sweet perdition lay,
While, like the sluiuh'rer in the night, And pity touch'd her soal with woe,
Pleas'd with the shadowy dream of light, To see a world so lost below;
Before her alienated eges

When straight the breeze began to breathe The scenes of fairy-hmid arise :

Airs, gently wafted from beneath, The puppet world's amusing show,

That bore commission'd witchcraft thience, Dipp'd in the gaily-color'd bow,

And reach'd her sympathy of sense; Sceptres and wreaths, and glitt'ring things, No sounds of discord, that disclose The toys of infants and of kings,

A people sunk and lost in woes, That tempt along the baweful plain,

But as of present good possest, The idly wise and lightly vain,

The very triumph of the blest. Till, verging on the gulfy shore.

The Maid in rapt attention hung, Sudden they sink — and rise no more. While thus approaching Sirens sung: But list to what thy fates declare ;

Hither, fairest, hither haste, Tho' thou art woman, frail as fair.

Brightest beauty, come and taste If once thy sliding foot should stray,

What the pow'rs of bliss unfold, Once quit yon heaven-appointed way,

Joys too mighty to be told: For thee, lost maid, for thee alone,

Taste what ecstasies they give; Nor pray'rs shall plead, nor tears atone ;

Dying raptures taste, and live. Reproach, scorn, infamy, and hate,

In thy lap, disdaining measure, On thy returning steps shall wait;

Nature empties all her treasure, Thy form be loath'd by ev'ry eye,

Soft desires, that sweetly languish ;
And ev'ry foot thy presence Aly

Fierce delights, that rise to anguish ;
Thus arm'd with words of potent sound, Fairest, dost thou yet delay?.
Like guardian angels plac'd arouud,

Brightest beauty, come away;
A charm by truth divinely cast,

List not, when the froward chide, Forward our young advent'rer pass'd ;

Sons of pedantry and pride,

M 4 Suarlers,