No care deftroy'd, no fick diforder prey'd,
No bending age his fprightly form decay'd,
No wars were known, no females heard to rage,
And Poets tell us, 'twas a golden age.
When Woman came, thofe ills the box confin'd
Burst furious out, and poifon'd all the wind,
From point to point, from pole to pole they flew,
Spread as they went, and in the progress grew :
The nymphs regretting left the mortal race,
And alt❜ring nature wore a fickly face;
New terms of folly rofe, new states of care;
New plagues, to fuffer, and to please, the fair!
The days of whining, and of wild intrigues,
Commenc'd, or finish'd, with the breach of leagues;
The mean defigns of well-diffembled love;
The fordid matches never join'd above;
Abroad, the labour, and at home the noise,
(Man's double fuff'rings for domestic joys)
The curfe of jealoufy; expence, and strife;
Divorce, the public brand of fhameful life;
The rival's fword: the qualm that takes the fair;
Difdain for paffion, paffion in despair-
These and a thoufand, yet unnam'd, we find ;
Ah fear the thousand, yet unnam❜d behind!
Thus on Parnaffus tuneful Hefiod fung, The mountain echo'd, and the valley rung, The facred groves a fix'd attention show, The chrystal Helicon forbore to flow,
The fky grew bright, and (if his verfe be true)
The Mufes came to give the laurel too.
But what avail'd the verdant prize of wit,
If love fwore vengeance for the tales he writ?
Ye fair offended, hear your friend relate
What heavy judgment prov'd the writer's fate,
Tho' when it happen'd, no relation clears,
'Tis thought, in five, or five and twenty years.
Where, dark and filent, with a twisted shade
The neighb'ring woods a native arbour made,
There oft a tender pair for am'rous play
Retiring, toy'd the ravish'd hours away;
A Locrian youth, the gentle Troilus he,
A fair Milefian, kind Evanthe she,
But fwelling nature in a fatal hour
Betray'd the fecrets of the confcious bow'r;
The dire difgrace her brothers count their own,
And track her steps, to make its author known.
It chanc'd one evening, ('twas the lover's day)
Conceal'd in brakes the jealous kindred lay;
When Hefiod wand'ring, mus'd along the plain,
And fix'd his feat where love had fix'd the scene:
A ftrong fufpicion strait poffefst their mind,
(For poets ever were a gentle kind.)
But when Evanthe near the paffage ftood,
Flung back a doubtful look and fhot the wood,
"Now take (at once they cry) thy due reward,"
And urg'd with erring rage, affault the bard.
His corps the fea receiv'd. The dolphins bore ('Twas all the Gods would do) the corps to shore. Methinks I view the dead with pitying eyes, And fee the dreams of antient wisdom rise; I fee the Muses round the body cry, But hear a Cupid loudly laughing by; He wheels his arrow with infulting hand, And thus infcribes the moral on the fand. "Here Hefiod lies: ye future bards, beware "How far your moral tales incenfe the fair: "Unlov'd, unloving, 'twas his fate to bleed ; "Without his quiver Cupid caus'd the deed: He judg'd this turn of malice justly due,
** And Hefiod dy'd for joys he never knew.”
WHEN thy beauty appears,
In its graces and airs,
All bright as an angel new dropt from the sky;
At distance I gaze, and am aw'd by my fears,
So ftrangely you dazzle my eye!
But when without art,
Your kind thoughts you impart,
your love runs in blushes thro' ev'ry vein; When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in
Then I know you're a woman again.
There's a paffion and pride
In our fex (the reply'd)
And thus (might I gratify both) I wou'd do:
Still an angel appear to each lover befide,
But ftill be a woman to you.
HYRSIS, a young and am'rous fwain,
Saw,two, the beauties of the plain;
Who both his heart fubdue:
Gay Caelia's eyes were dazzling fair,
Sabina's eafy fhape and air
With fofter magic drew.
He haunts the stream, he haunts the grove,
Lives in a fond romance of love,
And feems for each to die;
'Till each a little fpiteful grown, Sabina Caelia's fhape ran down, And fhe Sabina's eye.
Their envy made the shepherd find
Thofe eyes, which love could only blind;
So fet the lover free:
No more he haunts the grove or ftream,
Or with a true love knot and name
Engraves a wounded tree.
Ah Caelia (fly Sabina cry'd)
Tho' neither love, we're both deny'd;
Now to fupport the fex's pride,
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