PANEGYRICAL AND GALLANT. EPISTLE I. THE FEMINEAD: OR, FEMALE GENIUS. ADDRESSED TO MR. RICHARDSON, Author of Pamela, Clarissa, and Grandison. BY JOHN DUNCOMBE, M. A. WRITTEN IN THE YEAR M DCC LI. SHALL lordly man, the theme of every lay, In kingly state on Pindus' summit sit, By Salic law the female right deny, And view their genius with regardless eye? To sing the glories of a sister-choir! Rise, rise, bold swain; and to the listening grove Resound the praises of the sex you love; Tell how, adorn'd with every charm, they shine, In mind and person equally divine, 'Till man, no more to female merit blind, Admire the person, but adore the mind. To these weak strains, O thou! the sex's friend And constant patron, Richardson! attend! Thou, who so oft with pleas'd, but anxious care, Hast watch'd the dawning genius of the fair, With wonted smiles wilt hear thy friend display The various graces of the female lay; Studious from folly's yoke their minds to free, And aid the generous cause espous'd by thee. Long o'er the world did Prejudice maintain, Be thine, to move majestic in the dance, Or touch the strings, and breathe the melting song, Who to the sun their painted plumes display, And gaily glitter on the hawthorn spray, Or wildly warble in the beechen grove, Careless of aught but music, joy, and love." Heavens! could such artful, slavish sounds beguile The freeborn sons of Britain's polish'd isle ? Could they, like fam'd Ulysses' dastard crew, Attentive listen, and enamor'd view, Nor drive the Syren to that dreary plain, In loathsome pomp, where eastern tyrants reign; Our British nymphs with happier omens rove, |