That men may say, when we the front-box grace, 'Behold the first in virtue as in face!' Oh! if to dance all night, and dress all day, Charmed the small-pox, or chased old age away, Who would not scorn what housewife's cares. produce, 21 Or who would learn one earthly thing of use? Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade, And she who scorns a man must die a maid; What then remains but well our power to use, And keep good humour still, whate'er we lose? And trust me, dear! good humour can prevail, When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail. 32 Beauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul." So spoke the dame, but no applause ensued; Belinda frowned, Thalestris called her prude.] "To arms, to arms!" the fierce virago1 cries, And swift as lightning to the combat flies. 38 All side in parties, and begin th' attack; Fans clap, silks rustle, and tough whalebones crack; 40 Heroes' and heroines' shouts confus'dly rise, And bass and treble voices strike the skies. No common weapons in their hands are found, Like gods they fight, nor dread a mortal wound. So when bold Homer makes the gods engage, 45 And heavenly breasts with human passions rage; 'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms; And all Olympus rings with loud alarms: Jove's thunder roars, Heaven trembles all around, Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps resound: 50 Earth shakes her nodding towers, the ground 75 See, fierce Belinda on the Baron flies, With more than usual lightning in her eyes; Nor feared the chief th' unequal fight to try, Who sought no more than on his foe to die. But this bold lord with manly strength endued, She with one finger and a thumb subdued: 80 Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew, A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; [The gnomes direct, to every atom just, The pungent grains of titillating dust.] Sudden, with starting tears each eye o'erflows, 85 eyes: (So Rome's great founder to the heavens withdrew, 125 To Proculus1 alone confessed in view) 1 Cf. Livy, I, 6 2 The wife of Ptolemy Euergeles dedicated her hair for the safe return of her husband; upon its disappearance the astronomer Conon reported that it had been changed to the constellation Coma Berenices. 1[The sylphs behold it kindling as it flies, 131 And pleased pursue its progress through the skies.] This the beau monde shall from the Mall 2 survey, And hail with music its propitious ray. 1 [This the blest lover shall for Venus take, 135 And send up vows from Rosamonda's lake.2] This Partridge3 soon shall view in cloudless skies, When next he looks through Galileo's eyes; 4 And hence th' egregious wizard shall foredoom The fate of Louis and the fall of Rome. 140 Then cease, bright nymph! to mourn thy ravished hair, Which adds new glory to the shining sphere! And all those tresses shall be laid in dust: 148 Ye rugged rocks! which holy knees have worn; Ye grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid thorn! 20 Shrines where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep, And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep! Though cold like you, unmoved and silent grown, I have not yet forgot myself to stone. Nor tears, for ages taught to flow in vain. Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, That well-known name awakens all my woes. Oh, name forever sad! forever dear! Still breathed in sighs, still ushered with a tear. I tremble too, where'er my own I find; Some dire misfortune follows close behind. Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, Led through a sad variety of woe: 31 35 Now warm in love, now withering in my bloom, Lost in a convent's solitary gloom! flame, 39 There died the best of passions, love and fame. No happier task these faded eyes pursue; Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief; Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief. Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid, 51 How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot: Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned; Labour and rest, that equal periods keep; 211 "Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep; "2 Desires composed, affections ever even; Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to Heaven. Grace shines around her with serenest beams, And whispering angels prompt her golden dreams. For her th' unfading rose of Eden blooms, 217 220 Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit. But vindicate the ways of God to man. 15 I. Say first, of God above, or man below, What can we reason, but from what we know? Of man, what see we but his station here From which to reason or to which refer? 20 Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known, 'Tis ours to trace him only in our own. 25 AN ESSAY ON MAN May tell why Heaven has made us as we are. Is the great chain, that draws all to agree, And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee? 35 II. Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, 41 Why formed so weak, so little, and so blind? man: 45 And all the question (wrangle e'er so long) In human works, though laboured on with A thousand movements scarce one purpose In God's, one single can its end produce; 55 * 60 From brutes what men, from men what spirits 80 Or who could suffer being here below? Oh, blindness to the future! kindly given, 85 Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, A hero perish, or a sparrow fall, Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, And now a bubble burst, and now a world. 90 soar; Wait the great teacher Death; and God What future bliss, he gives not thee to know, Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind 102 105 Some safer world in depths of woods embraced, Some happier island in the watery waste, hold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire; 110 * * * VII. Far as creation's ample range extends, ascends. The scale of sensual,1 mental power Mark how it mounts, to man's imperial race, From the green myriads in the peopled grass: What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme, 211 The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam: 1 belonging to the senses |