Knowledge and Vertue on a worthy Mind Steal filently, and propagate their Kind.
HERE must I need exclaim, nor can forbear, On Noblemens improvidential Care;
Who to their forward Sons give loose the Reins, And taint the generous Blood which fills their Veins & Whofe leud Affociates commonly are known
For Sots, and Scandals of the Court and Town. For foon as Tutors have refign'd their Charge Of my young Lord, to let him live at large; He, who writes Man, must what he pleases do, Indulge his Fancy, his own Courfe purfue: Yet think not that this hopeful Babe of Grace Will follow Counsel, and the best embrace : No; he'll to Brothels or to Taverns run, And whore, and guzzle till the Morning Sun; Or at Groom-Porters he his Elbow shakes, Accompany'd by Scoundrels, Pimps, and Rakes, Who with falfe Pleasures the foft Peer entice, Then plunge the Bubble in the Gulf of Vice.
NOR are this vile and ignominious Race Content true Honour from his Breast to chase: They shut his Eyes to beauteous Truth, and blind With giddy Notions his unpractis'd Mind. Soon as my eafy and too generous Lord With ample Feafts has crown'd the loaded Board, Down ftrait the Parafitic Blockheads fit, To fcatter their infipid, flatt'ring Wit
This fordid Crew of Rafcals, without Senfe, Praise every bit they eat at his Expence : The Viands fome extol, and fome the Wine, And every Glafs they drink, cry, Wondrous fine! Here a ftanch Sot takes up the foaming Bowl,
And fwears his, Lordfhip has a Noble Soul: There a pert Coxcomb of a different Stile, A mere Sir Fopling, with affected Smile, Does Beauty's Queen, and Lady's Love commend, And vows there's nothing like a Female Friend; With luscious Words excites his Patron's Fire, And kindles into Leudness young Defire: • Did not your Lordship a young Damfel (py? How you the agled with a roguifh Eye!
• She tip'd & wanton Wink, and finil'd, and figh❜d, As if for you the tender Victim dy'd:
I know your Heart is to Compaffion prone,
True Flesh and Blood, not made of Steel or Stone: Can you withstand the torrent of her Charms?
• Who would not languish in her fnowy Arms? • Mind not what dull and fullen Cato's fay,
• Or canting Solons; you're as wife as they: • Now your first Blood and fpringing Youth employ In amorous Sports, and give a loose to Joy.' Such are the Guests which you at Board maintain; Such the raw Mind in Vice and Nonsense train; The common Chat of th' unreflecting Crew, Who drop whatever's Great, or Good, or True.
WHILE I new Matter for a Verfe prepare, What heavenly Voice affects my lift'ning Ear?
What Deity a Human Form affumes,
And with Ambrofial Breath the Air perfumes? All things around with Beams of Beauty fhine, And Roses spring beneath her Feet divine: I fee (nor does my Fancy cheat my Sight) Calliope in all her Graces bright: What awful Luftre lightens from her Face! The Goddess known by her Majeftick Pace!
WHY deigns the Mufe to quit the learned Throng, And Pindus Hill, for my advent'rous Song? Say, art thou come my Labours to efpouse,
And with Parnaffian Bays t'adorn my Brows?
GO on, faid he, in thy immortal Theme, To merit mine, and all the World's Efteem: Improve thy Song, and in thy facred Breaft Admit with Joy a fecond heavenly Guest : 'Tis not enough that your aufpicious Care Has furnish'd Man, if you neglect the Fair: Shall Arts and Learning be alone confin'd To the Male Image of th' Eternal Mind?
Nature, who gave till the could give no more, On Woman lavish'd all her precious Store; Who now courts folid and fubftantial Praise, Nor values Beauty, wedded to a Face: Her Mind peculiar Ornaments defires, And Vertues proper to her Sex requires And fince my tuneful Sifters all delight In comely Forms, obliging to the Sight;
Since we alone can tell what fofter Art Suits with the Genius of a Virgin's Heart; I leave the learned Mountains to disclose
What well thy lov'd Calliofea knows : Be thou attentive, while I deign to fhine On thy smooth Page, and brighten every Line.
'TIS true, that Man is more fublime and bold, But Woman's figur'd of a finer Mould;
Hence the foft Nature of a pliant Clay
Will all Impreffions take, all Forms obey: Who then excludes the Virgins, as unfit For the high Arts and Myfteries of Wit? Or why should base invidious Man deny The Search of Truth to their difcerning Eye? Why, when ingenit Reason shoots her Ray To light us all, are they forbid the Day? Why fhould th' implanting Energy of Mind Grow faint, and flacken in the Female kind? Impartial Jove forbids fo great a Crime; Nor was Apollo only born to climb Aonian Hills; we too inhabit there, The Mufes, ever Tuneful, ever Fair: Tritonian Pallas does her Ægis wield, Nor will to Phoebus or Gradivus yield, But rules in Athens, and commands the Field.
YET (O the Folly of the Gallic Race!) No Princely Nymph does here our Rites embrace: With thee, Valois, all Female Wit is fled, With thee is every Grace and Beauty dead.
No more fine Arts are of this Country's Growth With modern Ladies, fo fupine in Sloth. The Mind lies fallow, and none care to toil In the good Ground, and fow the noble Soil.
BUT if we bend far Northward, to behold A People, horrid with the Arctic Cold; There does Chriftina, Queen of Vandals, reign, And kindly welcomes the Pierian Train. From Southern Climes the flighted Muses flown, Find fafe Protection in the frigid Zone: She peaceful Arts with Arms delights to join, And with her Father's Laurels mingle mine. Who can the Counfels of the Gods relate, And dark Defigns of Providence and Fate ? The Goths, a Nation barbarous and rude, An ignorant, unletter'd Multitude;
Who o'er the World once like a Deluge broke, And chain'd the Roman Empire to their Yoke; When trampled Arts did every where expire, Spoils of the greedy Sword, or raging Fire ; Have loft their rugged and uncourtly Mien, Fil'd into Smoothnefs by fo wife a Queen; And amply now to Learning have repaid For the wide Wounds their bloody Fathers made
YE Gallic Matrons, if ye scorn to know The Pleasures, which from polifh'd Letters flow, If you delight not to inform your Soul; At least, preferve your Body chafte, and whole':
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