200

hide;

But grant, in Public Men sometimes are shown,
A woman's feen in Private life alone :
Our bolder Talents in full light display'd ;
Your Virtues open fairest in the shade.
Bred to disguise, in Public ’tis you
There, none distinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride,
Weakness or Delicacy; all so nice,

205 That each may seem a Virtue, or a Vice.

In Men we various Ruling Passions find;
In Women, two almoit divide the kind;
Those, only fix’d, they first or last obey,
The Love of Pleasure, and the Love of Sway.

That, Nature gives; and where the lesson taught
Is but to please, can Pleasure seem a fault?
Experience, this; by Man's oppression curft,
They seek the second not to lose the first.
Men, fome to Business, fome to Pleasure take;

215 But every

Woman is at heart a Rake:
Men, fome to Quiet, fome to public Strife;
But every Lady would be Queen for Life.

Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens !
Power all their end, but Beauty all the means :

In

VARIATIONS.

Thus while immortal Cibber only fings (As Clarke and Hoadly preach) for queens and kings, The Nymph that ne'er read Milton's mighty line,

May, if she love, and merit verse, have mine,
Ver.
207.

in the first Edition,
In several Men we several passions find;
In Women, two almost divide the kind,
VOL. II.

I

a

In Youth they conquer with so wild a rage,
As leaves them scarce a subject in their Age:
For foreign glory, foreign joy, they roam;
No thought of peace or happiness at home.
But Wisdom's triumph is well-tim'd Retreat,

225
As hard a science to the Fair as Great!
Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless grown,
Yet hate repose, and dread to be alone,
Worn-out in public, weary every eye,
Nor leave one sigh behind them when they die. 230

Pleasures the sex, as children Birds, pursue, Still out of reach, yet never out of view; Sure, if they catch, to spoil the Toy at most, To covet flying, and regret when loft : At last, to follies Youth could scarce defend, 235 It grows their Age's prudence to pretend; Alham'd to own they gave delight before, Reduc'd to feign it, when they give no more : As Hags hold Sabbaths, less for joy than spight, So these their merry, miserable Night;

240 Still round and round the Ghosts of Beauty glide, And haunt the places where their honour dy'd.

See how the World its Veterans rewards ! A Youth of Frolicks, an old Age of Cards; Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,

245 Young without Lovers, old without a Friend ; A Fop their Paffion, but their Prize a Sot, Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot!

Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain design; To raise the thought, and touch the Heart be thine ! 2 50

That

That Charm shall grow, while what fatigues the Ring,
Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing :
So when the Sun's broad bcam has tir'd the fight,
All mild ascends the Moon's more sober light,
Serene in Virgin Modesty the Thines,

255 And unobserv’d the glaring orb declines.

Oh! bleft with Temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow chearful as to-day :
She, who can love a Sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a Daughter with unwounded car; 260
She who ne'er answers 'till a Husband cools,
Or, if the rules him, never shews she rules;
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her humour most, when she obeys ;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they wll ; 265
Dildains all loss of Tickets, or Codille;
Splcen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above thein all,
And Mistress of herself, though China fall.

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman 's at best a contradiction still.
Heaven when it strives to polish all it can
Its last best work, but forms a softer Man;
Picks from each sex, to make the Favourite blest,
Your love of Pleasure, our desire of Reft :
Blends, in exception to all general rules,

275
Your taste of Follies, with our scorn of Fools :
Reserve with Frankness, Art with Truth ally'd,
Courage with Softness, Modesty with Pride;
Fix'd Principles, with Fancy ever new;
Shakes all together, and produces-You.

280

270

Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unblest,
Toasts live a scorn, and Queens may die a jest.
This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes first open’d on the sphere;
Ascendant Phæbus watch'd that hour with care, 285
Averted half your Parents' simple Prayer ;
And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your sex a Tyrant o'er itself.
The generous God, who Wit and Gold refines,
And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines.

290 Kept Dross for Duchesses, the world shall know it, To you gave Sense, Good-humour, and a Poet,

MORAL

Of the Use of RICHES. THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of

the extremes, Avarice or Profusion, ver. 1, &c. The Point discussed, whether the invention of Money has been more commodious or pernicious to Mankind, ver. 21 to 77. That Riches, either to the Avaricious or the Prodigal, cannot afford Happiness, scarcely Necessaries, ver. 89 to 160. That Avarice is an absolute Frenzy, without an End or Purpose, ver. 113, &c.

152. Conjectures about the Motives of Avaricious men, ver. 121 to 153. That the conduct of men, with respect to Riches, can only be accountedfor by the Order of Providence, which works the general Good out of Extremes, and brings all to its great End by perpetual Revolutions, ver. 161 to 178. How a Miser acts upon Principles which appear to him reasonable, ver. 179. How a Prodigal does the fame, ver. 199. The due Medium, and true use of Riches, ver. 219. The Man of Ross, ver. 250. The fate of the Profuse and the Covetous, in two examples; both miserable in Life and in Death, ver. 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, ver. 339 to the end.

EPISTLE

I 3