Whence strive you then, to hurt your own fair kind?
How came your injuries to them confin'd?
Whence dares your pencil offer to disgrace
Such looks as well might hint an Angel's face?
What secret passion aids thy touch with spite
To darken Chloe's brown, or taint Clarinda's white?
Say, is it Envy guides thy faithless line?
Can meagre Envy dwell in breasts like thine?
With trembling dost thou Caelia's features trace,
Or fear that Mira's smiles should thine disgrace?
Thy own fair self, mistaken charmer, view, Learn thy own power, and let thy paint be true. With kindly care thy happiest colors blend, And strive what Nature fairest forms to mend : From Chloe's eye bid keener lightnings flow; Teach Caelia's cheeks with softer red to glow : Still, still, bright Nymph, unrival'd shalt thou shine; Thy paint is charming, but thy form divine.
DRAWING THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS.
O matre pulchra, filia pulchrior!
How true the mimic forms appear,
The ebon shield and glitt'ring spear!
The piercing eye, the steady mien,
As erst in Athens she was seen;
Or rising from her borrow'd guise,
She struck th' astonish'd Grecian's eyes.
And in celestial radiance drest,
The martial goddess stood confest.
With brow indignant and severe,
See Juno, jealous Queen, appear;
Stern, as when slighted by her God,
She made Heav'n tremble at her nod.
But these are Fancy's airy train,
That fir'd old Homer's epic strain;
Made heroes fight and deities jar,
And kept alive a ten years war.
Charlotte, thy pencil's skill'd to trace
Superior forms and easier grace:
Why copy then what Fiction drew,
When Nature holds herself to view!
Cease on this Cyprian form to gaze,
And trust thy faithful mirror's rays;
By its reflected aid, you'll know
More vivid tints, the warmer glow.
The auburn ringlet—brilliant eye—
Dimples-where Loves in ambush lie-
Teeth-as the Ceylon ivory white-
Lips with the Persian coral dight-
The graceful neck—and swelling breast-
Here Fancy blushing paints the rest.
FONTENELLE's PLURALITY OF WORLDS.
In this small work, all nature's wonders see,
The soften'd features of philosophy.
In truth by easy steps you here advance,
Truth as diverting as the best romance.
Long had these arts to sages been confin'd,
None saw their beauty, 'till by poring blind ;
By studying spent, like men that cram too full,
From Wisdom's feast they rose not chear'd, but
dull:
gay and airy smil❜d to see 'em grave, And fled such wisdom like Trophonius' cave. Justly they thought they might those arts despise, Which made men sullen, ere they could be wise.
Brought down to sight, with ease you view 'em
Though deep the bottom, yet the stream is clear.
Your flutt'ring sex still valu’d science less ;
Careless of any but the arts of dress.
Their useless time was idly thrown away
On empty novels, or some new-born play;
The best, perhaps, a few loose hours might spare
For some unmeaning thing, miscall'd a prayer.
In vain the glittʼring orbs, each starry night,
With mingling blazes shed a flood of light:
Each nymph with cold indiff'rence saw 'em rise;
And, taught by fops, to them preferr'd her eyes.
None thought the stars were suns so widely sown,
None dreamt of other worlds, besides our own.
Well might they boast their charms, when every fair
Thought this world all; and her's the brightest here.
Ah! quit not the large thoughts this book inspires,
For those thin trifles which your sex admires :
Assert your claim to sense, and shew mankind,
That reason is not to themselves confin'd.
The haughty belle, whose beauty's awful shrine
'Twere sacrilege t' imagine not divine,
Who thought so greatly of her eyes before,
Bid her read this, and then be vain no more.
How poor ev'n you, who reign without control,
If we except the beauties of your soul!
Should all beholders feel the same surprise:
Should all who see you, see you with my eyes;
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