And, void of modefty and thought,
She follows Bibo's endless draught.
Through the soft sex again the ranges ;
As youth, caprice, or fashion, changes.
Fair Alma, careless and ferene,
In Fanny's fprightly eyes is feen;
While they diffuse their infant beams, '
Themselves not conscious of their flames.
Again fair Alma fits confeft
On Florimel's experter breast;
When the the rising sigh constrains,
And by concealing speaks her pains.
In Cynthia's neck fair Alma glows,
When the vain thing her jewels fhows:
When Jenny's stays are newly lac'd,
Fair Alma plays about her waift;
And when the swelling hoop sustains
The rich brocade, fair Alma deigns
Into that lower space to enter,
Of the large round herself the centre.
Again that fingle limb or feature
(Such is the cogent force of nature),
Which moft did Alma's paffion move
In the first object of her love,
For ever will be found confeft,
And printed on the amorous breast.
O Abelard, ill-fated youth,
Thy tale will justify this truth :
But well I weet, thy cruel wrong
Adorns a nobler poet's fong.
Dan Pope, for thy misfortune griev'd,
With kind concern and fkill has weav'd
A filken web; and ne'er shall fade
Its colours; gently has he laid
The mantle o'er thy fad distress:
And Venus fhall the texture blefs.
He o'er the weeping nun has drawn
Such artful folds of facred lawn ;
That love, with equal grief and pride,
Shall fee the crime he strives to hide;
And, foftly drawing back the veil,
The God fhall to his votaries tell
Each confcious tear, each blushing grace,
That deck'd dear Eloifa's face.
Which Buckingham has deign'd to praife!
Happy the poet, bleft the lays,
Next, Dick, as youth and habit sways,
A hundred gambols Alma plays.
If, whilft a boy, Jack ran from school,
Fond of his hunting-horn and pole;
Though gout and age his fpeed detain,
Old John halloos his hounds again :
By his fire fide he starts the hare;
And turns her in his wicker-chair:
His feet, however lame, you find,
Have got the better of his mind.
Turn we this globe; and let us fee
How different nations disagree
In what we wear, or eat and drink;
Nay, Dick, perhaps in what we think.
In water as you smell and tafte
The foils through which it rose and past;
In Alma's manners you may read
The place where she was born and bred.
One people from their fwaddling bands
Releas'd their infants' feet and hands:
Here Alma to these limbs was brought;
And Sparta's offspring kick'd and fought.
Another taught their babes to talk,
Ere they could yet in go-carts walk :
There Alma fettled in the tongue :
And orators from Athens fprung.
Obferve but in these neighbouring lands
The different ufe of mouths and hands;
As men repos'd their various hopes,
In battles these, and those in tropes.
In Britain's ifles, as Heylin notes,
The ladies trip in petticoats;
Which, for the honour of their nation,
They quit but on fome great occafion.
Men there in breeches clad you view :
They claim that garment as their due.
In Turkey the reverse appears ;
Long coats the haughty husband wears;
And greets his wife with angry speeches,
If fhe be seen without her breeches.
In our fantastic climes, the fair
With cleanly powder dry their hair :
And round their lovely breaft and head
Fresh flowers their mingled odours shed.
Your nicer Hottentots think meet
With guts and tripe to deck their feet:
With down-caft looks on Totta's legs,
The ogling youth most humbly begs,
She would not from his hopes remove
At once his breakfaft and his love:
And, if the skittish nymph should fly,
He in a double fenfe muft die.
We fimple toafters take delight
To fee our womens teeth look white.
And every faucy ill-bred fellow
Sneers at a mouth profoundly yellow.
In China none hold women fweet,
Except their fnaggs are black as jett.
King Chihu put nine queens to death,
Convict on statute, Ivory Teeth.
At Tonquin, if a prince should die
(As Jefuits write, who never lye),
The wife, and counsellor, and priest,
Who ferv'd him most, and lov'd him beft,
Prepare and light his funeral fire,
And chearful on the pile expire.
In Europe 't would be hard to find,
In each degree, one half fo kind.
Now turn we to the farthest cast,
And there obferve the gentry dreft.
Prince Giolo, and his royal fisters,
Scarr'd with ten thousand comely blifters;
The marks remaining on the fkin,
To tell the quality within.
Distinguish'd flashes deck the great:
As each excels in birth or ftate,
His oylet-holes are more and ampler :
The king's own body was a famplar.
Happy the climate, where the beau
Wears the fame fuit for use and show:
And at a small expence your wife,
If once well pink'd, is cloath'd for life.
Weftward again, the Indian fair
Is nicely finear❜d with fat of bear:
Before you fee, you fmell your toaft;
And fweeteft the who ftinks the most.
The fineft fparks and cleanest beaux
Drip from the fhoulders to the toes :
How fleek their fkins! their joints how eafy!
There flovens only are not greasy.
I mention'd different ways of breeding:
Begin we in our childrens reading.
To mafter John the English maid
A horn-book gives of ginger-bread;
And, that the child may learn the better,
As he can name, he eats the letter.
Proceeding thus with vast delight,
He spells, and gnaws, from left to right.
But, fhew a Hebrew's hopeful fon
Where we fuppofe the book begun,
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