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 self will be polite.

Ye rifing fair! ye bloom of Britain's ifle!
When high-born ANNA, with a foften'd fmile,
Leads on your train, and sparkles at your head,
What feems most 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 threefcore:
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 fpectacles 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 conquests, and defrauds the tomb.
In vain the cock has fummon'd sprites away,
She walks at noon, and blafts the bloom of day.
Gay rainbow filks her mellow charms infold,
And nought of LYCE but herself is old.
Her grizzled locks assume a smirking grace,
And art has levell'd her deep-furrow'd face.
Her ftrange demand no mortal can approve,
We'll afk 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 shine.
That, and that only, can old age sustain ;
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 blafts of fortune fweep 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 fînk in woe.
Ye beauteous orphans, fince in filent duft
Your best example lies, my precepts trust.
Life swarms with ills; the boldeft are afraid;
Where then is fafety for a tender maid?
Unfit for conflict, round befet with woes,

And man, whom least she fears, her worst of foes!
When kind, most cruel; when oblig'd the most,
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 sex a blot has thrown,
"Twill ever ftick, through malice of your own.
Moft hard! in pleafing your chief glory lies;
And yet from pleasing your chief dangers rise:
Then please the Beft; and know, for men of sense,
Your ftrongest 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 secret lies;

Be kind and virtuous, you'll be blest and wise.
Vain her and noife intoxicate the brain,
Begin with giddiness, and end in pain.
Affect not empty fame, and idle praise,
Which, all those wretches I describe, betrays.
Your fex's glory 'tis, to shine 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 abstinence alone can quench the fire;
Take pain from life, and terror from the tomb;
Give peace in hand; and promise bliss to come.

SATIRE

ON

WOM

E N.

VI.

Infcribed to the RIGHT HONOURABLE the

Lady ELIZABETH GERMAIN.

Interdum tamen & tollit comœdia vocem. HOR.

I

SOUGHT a patroness, 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 fhield them from the town.
"Detected worth, like beauty difarray'd,
"To covert flies, of praise itself afraid:
Should he refufe 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 eafily be done."

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

Nor hope from ZINCKS more justice 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 visit 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 visitants in bed;
But, chafte as ice, this Vefta, to defy
The very blackeft tongue of calumny,

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