SIXTH EVENING. Whosoever hath "Delight in Disorder," shall be entertained here with much Variety and little Order but Caprice, the Selections ranging from Swift to the Poets of our own day, English and American. VANESSA. FROM CADENUS AND VANESSA," BY JONATHAN SWIFT. Na glad hour Lucina's aid IN Produced on earth a wondrous maid, On whom the queen of love was bent To try a new experiment. She threw her law-books on the shelf, And thus debated with herself: "Since men allege, they ne'er can find Those beauties in a female mind, And represent them to mankind Collected in that infant's mind." This said, she plucks in heaven's high bowers A sprig of amaranthine flowers, In nectar thrice infuses bays, Three times refined in Titan's rays; And sprinkles thrice the new-born maid: A sweetness above all perfumes : From whence that decency of mind, Where not one careless thought intrudes, That spurious virtue in a maid, They blush because they understand. The Graces next would act their part, By which thou shalt be known to fame; Her name on earth shall not be told." But still the work was not complete ; A boy in yonder isle below, So like my own without his bow, But it shall ne'er be said a child Wisdom's above suspecting wiles : Then sows within her tender mind Seeds long unknown to womankind; * For manly bosoms chiefly fit, The seeds of knowledge, judgment, wit. With justice, truth, and fortitude; With honor, which no breath can stain, Which malice must attack in vain ; She knew, in our degenerate days, * It may be said that the poet here glorifies his heroine at the expense of the sex, but let this be forgiven for the sake of the general charm of the picture.— EDITOR. |