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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 rose, 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 domeftic joys)
The curfe of jealoufy; expence, and strife;
Divorce, the publick brand of fhameful life;
The rival's fword; the qualm that takes the Fair;
Difdain for paffion, paffion in defpair

These, and a thousand, yet unnam'd we find;
Ah fear the thousand, yet unnam'd behind!

Thus on Parnaffus tuneful Hefiod sung,

The mountain echo'd, and the valley rung,

The

The facred groves a fix'd attention fhow,
The chrystal Helicon forbore to flow,
The sky grew bright, and (if his verse be true)
The Muses came to give the laurel too.
But what avail'd the verdant prize of wit,
If Love swore 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 neighbouring woods a native arbour made,
There oft the tender pair for am'rous play
Retiring, toy'd the ravish'd hours away;

A Locrian youth, the gentle Troilus he,
A fair Milesian, kind Evanthe she:
But fwelling nature in a fatal hour

Betray'd the fecrets of the conscious 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 strong suspicion ftrait poffefs'd their mind, (For Poets ever were a gentle kind)

But when Evanthe near the paffage stood, Flung back a doubtful look, and shot 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 fhore.

Methinks I view the dead with pitying eyes,

And see the dreams of antient wisdom rife;
I fee the Mufes 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 incense the Fair:

" Un

"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.

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All bright as an Angel new dropt from the sky; At diftance I gaze and am aw'd by my fears,

So ftrangely you dazzle my eye!

But when without art,

Your kind thoughts you impart,

When your love runs in blushes thro' every vein;

When it darts from your eyes, when it pants in

your heart,

Then I know you're a woman again.

There's

There's a paffion and pride

In our fex, fhe reply'd,

And thus, might I gratify both, I would do: Still an Angel appear to each lover befide, But ftill be a woman to you.

TH

SONG.

HYRSIS, a young and am'rous fwain,
Saw two, the Beauties of the plain;

Who both his heart fubdue:

Gay Cælia's eyes were dazzling fair,

Sabina's easy shape and air

With fofter magick drew.

He haunts the ftream, he haunts the grove,

Lives in a fond romance of love,

And feems for each to die ;

Till each a little spiteful grown,
Cabina, Cælia's fhape ran down,

And the Sabina's eye.

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