Stiff forms are bad; but let not worse intrude,
Nor conquer art and nature, to be rude.
Modern good-breeding carry to its height,
And lady D's felf will be polite.

Ye rifing fair! ye bloom of Britain's isle!
When high-born ANNA, with a foften'd fmile,
Leads on your train, and sparkles at your head,
What seems moft hard, is, not to be well-bred.
Her bright example with fuccefs pursue,
And all, but adoration, is your due.

But adoration! give me fomething more,
Cries LYCE, on the borders of threescore :
Nought treads fo filent as the foot of time;
Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime;
'Tis greatly wife to know, before we're told,
The melancholy news, that we grow old.
Autumnal LYCE carries in her face
Memento mori to each public place.

O how your beating breast a mistress warms,
Who looks through spectacles to fee your charms!
While rival undertakers hover round,

And with his fpade the fexton marks the ground,
Intent not on her own, but others' doom,
She plans new conquefts, and defrauds the tomb.
In vain the cock has fummon'd sprites away,
She walks at noon, and blasts the bloom of day.
Gay rainbow filks her mellow charms infold,
And nought of LYCE but herself is old.
Her grizzled locks affume a smirking grace,
And art has levell'd her deep-furrow'd face.
Her ftrange demand no mortal can approve,
We'll ask her blessing, but can't ask her love.
She grants, indeed, a lady may decline
(All ladies but herself) at ninety-nine.

5

O how

O how unlike her is the facred age

Of prudent PORTIA! Her grey hairs engage;
Whose thoughts are fuited to her life's decline:
Virtue's the paint that can with wrinkles fhine.
That, and that only, can old age fuftain;
Which yet all wish, nor know they wish for pain.
Not num'rous are our joys, when life is new;
And yearly fome are falling of the few;
But when we conquer life's meridian stage,
And downward tend into the vale of age,
They drop apace; by nature fome decay,
And fome the blasts of fortune sweep away;
'Till naked quite of happiness, aloud
We call for death, and shelter in a shroud.

Where's PORTIA now?-But PORTIA left behind

Two lovely copies of her form and mind.

What heart untouch'd their early grief can view,
Like blushing rofe-buds dipp'd in morning dew?
Who into shelter takes their tender bloom,

And forms their minds to flee from ills to come?
The mind, when turn'd adrift, no rules to guide,
Drives at the mercy of the wind and tide ;
Fancy and paffion tofs it to and fro;
Awhile torment, and then quite sink in woe.
Ye beauteous orphans, fince in filent duft
Your best example lies, my precepts truft.
Life fwarms with ills; the boldeft are afraid;
Where then is fafety for a tender maid?
Unfit for conflict, round beset with woes,

And man, whom leaft fhe fears, her worft of foes!
When kind, moft cruel; when oblig'd the moft,
The leaft obliging; and by favours loft.

Cruel by nature, they for kindness hate;
And scorn you for thofe ills themselves create.

If on your fame our fex a blot has thrown,
Twill ever stick, through malice of your own.
Moft hard! in pleafing your chief glory lies;
And yet from pleafing your chief dangers rise:
Then please the Beft; and know, for men of sense,
Your strongest charms are native innocence.

Art on the mind, like paint upon the face,

Fright him, that's worth your love, from your embrace.

In fimple manners all the fecret lies;

Be kind and virtuous, you'll be bleft and wise.

Vain fhew and noise intoxicate the brain,
Begin with giddinefs, and end in pain.
Affect not empty fame, and idle praise,
Which, all those wretches I describe, betrays.
Your fex's glory 'tis, to fhine unknown ;
Of all applause, be fondeft of your own.
Beware the fever of the mind! that thirst
With which the age is eminently curft:
To drink of pleasure, but inflames defire;
And abftinence alone can quench the fire;
Take pain from life, and terror from the tomb;
Give peace in hand; and promise blifs to come.

Infcribed to the RIGHT HONOURABLE the

Lady ELIZABETH GERMAIN.

Interdum tamen & tollit comedia vocem.

HOR.

I

SOUGHT a patronefs, but fought in vain. APOLLO whisper'd in my ear-" GERMAIN.". I know her not.- -"Your reason's somewhat odd; "Who knows his patron, now?" reply'd the god. "Men write, to me, and to the world, unknown; "Then steal great names, to shield them from the town. "Detected worth, like beauty difarray'd,

"To covert flies, of praise itself afraid:
"Should be refuse to patronize your lays,
"In vengeance write a volume in her praise.

VOL. I.

K

"Nor

Nor think it hard fo great a length to run; "When fuch the theme, 'twill easily be done."

Ye fair! to draw your excellence at length, Exceeds the narrow bounds of human strength; You, here, in miniature your picture fee;

Nor hope from ZINCKS more juftice than from me.
My portraits grace your mind, as his your fide;
His portraits will inflame, mine quench, your pride:
He's dear, you frugal; choose my cheaper lay;
And be your reformation all my pay.

LAVINIA is polite, but not profane;
To Church as conftant as to Drury-lane.
She decently, in form, pays heav'n its due;
And makes a civil vifit to her pew.

Her lifted fan, to give a folemn air,
Conceals her face, which passes for a prayer:
Curtfies to curtfies, then, with grace, fucceed;
Not one the fair omits, but at the Creed.
Or if the joins the Service, 'tis to speak;
Thro' dreadful filence the pent heart might break;
Untaught to bear it, women talk away
To God himself, and fondly think they pray.
But fweet their accent, and their air refin'd ;
For they're before their Maker--and mankind:
When ladies once are proud of praying well,
SATAN himself will toll the parish bell.

Acquainted with the world, and quite well-bred,
DRUSA receives her vifitants in bed;
But, chafte as ice, this Vefta, to defy
The very blackeft tongue of calumny,

When from the sheets her lovely form she lifts,
She begs you just wou'd turn you, while fhe shifts.
Those charms are greatest which decline the fight,
That makes the banquet poignant and polite.