Our bolder Talents in full light difplay'd;

Your Virtues open faireft in the shade.

Bred to difguife, in Public 'tis you hide;

There, none diftinguish 'twixt your Shame or Pride, Weaknefs, or Delicacy; all fo nice,

That each may feem a Virtue, or a Vice.

In Men we various Ruiing Paffions find;
In Women, two almost divide the kind;
Thofe, only fix'd, they first or laft obey,
The Love of Pleafure, and the Love of fway.

205

210

That, Nature gives; and where the lesson taught

Is but to please, can Pleasure feem a fault?

lowing, others are still wanting, nor can we answer that thefe are exactly inferted.

VER. 207. The former part having fhewn, that the particular Characters of Women are more various than those of Men, it is nevertheless obferved, that the general Characteriftic of the fex, as to the ruling Paffion, is more uniform.

VER. 211. This is occafioned partly by their Nature, partly their Education, and in some degree by Neceffity.

VARIATIONS.

And, for a noble pride, I blush no less,
Inftead of Berenice to think on Befs.
Thus while immortal Cibber only fings
(As * and H**y preach) for queens and kings,
The Nymph that ne'er read Milton's mighty line,
May, if the love, and merit verfe, have mine.

VER. 207. In the first Edition,

In fev'ral Men we fev'ral paffions find;
In Women, two almost divide the Kind.

Experience, this; by Man's oppreffion curst,

They seek the second not to lose the first.

Men fome to Bus'nefs, fome to Pleasure take; 215 But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake:

Men, fome to Quiet, fome to public Strife;
But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for Life.

Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens!
Pow'r all their end, but Beauty all the means:
In Youth they conquer with fo wild a rage,
As leaves them scarce a fubject in their Age:
For foreign glory, foreign joy, they roam;
No thought of peace or happiness at home.
But Wisdom's triumph is well-tim❜d Retreat,
As hard a science to the Fair as Great!
Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless grown,
Yet hate repose, and dread to be alone,

Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye,

220

225

Nor leave one figh behind them when they die. 230 Pleasures the fex, as children Birds, pursue,

Still out of reach, yet never out of view;

VER. 216. But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake: ] "Some "men (fays the poet) take to business, fome to pleasure, "but every woman would willingly make pleasure her bufi"nefs:" which being the peculiar characteristic of a Rake, we must needs think that he includes (in his ufe of the word here) no more of the Rake's ill qualities than are implied in this definition, of one who makes pleasure his business.

VER. 219. What are the Aims and the Fate of this Sex?
I. As to Pozver.

VER. 231. II. As to Pleasure.

235

Sure, if they catch, to fpoil the Toy at most,
To covet flying, and regret when loft:
At laft, to follies Youth could fcarce defend,
It grows their Age's prudence to pretend;
Afham'd to own they gave delight before,
Reduc'd to feign it, when they give no more:
As Hags hold Sabbaths, lefs for joy than fpight,
So these their merry, miferable Night;
240
Still round and round the Ghofts of Beauty glide,
And haunt the places where their honour dy’d.

See how the World its Veterans rewards!
A Youth of Frolicks, an old Age of Cards;
Fair to no purpofe, artful to no end,
Young without Lovers, old without a Friend;
A Fop their Paffion, but their Prize a Sot,
Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot!

Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain defign;

245

To raise the thought, and touch the Heart be thine !
That Charm fhail grow, while what fatigues the Ring,
Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing :
So when the Sun's broad beam has tir'd the fight,
All mild afcends the Moon's more fober light,

VER. 249. Advice for their true Interest.

VER. 253. So when the sun's broad beam, etc.] One of the great beauties obfervable in the poet's management of his Similitudes, is the ceremonious preparation he makes for them, in gradually raising the imagery of the fimilitude in the lines preceding, by the use of metaphors taken from the fubject of it:

while what fatigues the ring, Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded 'hing.

255

260

Serene in Virgin Modefty fhe fhines,
And unobferv'd the glaring orb declines.
Oh! bleft with Temper, whofe unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow chearful as to-day :
She, who can love a Sifter's charms, or hear
Sighs for a Daughter with unwounded ear;
She who ne'er anfwers 'till a Husband cools,
Or, if the rules him, never fhews' fhe rules;
Charms by accepting, by fubmitting sways,
Yet his her humour moft, when the obeys;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they will; 265
Diflains all lofs of Tickets or Codille;

Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all,
Aid Mift eis of herfelf, tho' China fall.

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill,

Wo nan's at beft a Contradiction ftill.

270

And the civil difmiffion he gives them by the continuance of the fame metaphor, in the lines following, whereby the traces of the imagery gradually decay, and give place to others, and the reader is never offended with the fudden or abrupt disappearance of it,

Oh! bleft with Temper, whofe unclouded ray, etc.

Another instance of the fame kind we have in this epiftle, in the following lines,

Chufe a firm cloud before it fall, and in it
Catch, ere the change, the Cynthia of this minute.
Rufa, whofe eye quick-glancing o'er the Park,
Attracts each light gay Meteor of a Spark, etc.

Heav'n, when it strives to polish all it can

;

Its laft beft work, but forms a fofter Man
Picks from each fex, to make the Fav'rite bleft,
Your love of Pleasure, our defire of Rest :
Blends, in exception to all gen'ral rules,
Your taste of Follies, with our Scorn of Fools:
Referve with Frankness, Art with Truth ally'd,
Courage with Softnefs, Modefty with Pride;
Fix'd Principles, with Fancy ever new ;
Shakes all together, and produces

You.

275

280

Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft,
Toafts live a scorn, and Queen's may die a jeft.
This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes firft open'd on the sphere;
Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, 285
Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r ;

VER. 285, etc. Afcendant Phœbus watch'd that hour with care, Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r; And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf] The poet concludes his Epiftle with a fine Moral, that deferves the ferious attention of the public: It is this, that all the extravagances of these vicious Characters here defcribed, are much inflamed by a wrong Education, hinted at in ver. 203; and that even the best are rather fecured by a good natural than by the prudence and providence of parents; which obfervation is conveyed under the fublime claffical machinery of Phoebus in the afcendant, watching the natal hour of his favourite, and averting the ill effects of her parents mistaken fondness: For Phoebus, as the god of Wit, confers Genius; and, as one of the aftronomical influences, defeats the adventitious byas of education.

In conclufion, the great Moral from both thefe Epiftles