A baby face, no life, no airs,
But what he learnt at country fairs;
Scarce knows what diff'rence is between
Rich Flanders lace, and Colberteen.
I'll undertake, my little Nancy
In flounces hath a better fancy.
With all her wit, I would not ask
Her judgment how to buy a mask.
We begg'd her but to patch her face;
She never hit one proper place;
Which ev'ry girl at five years old
Can do, as foon as fhe is told.
I own, that out-of-fashion stuff
Becomes the Creature well enough.
The girl might pafe, if we could get her
To know the world a little better.
("To know the world!" a modern phrafe
For vifits, ombre, balls, and plays.)
Thus, to the world's perpetual shame,
The queen of Beauty loft her aim.
Too late, with grief fhe understood,
Pallas had done more harm than good:
For great examples are but vain,
Where ignorance begets disdain,
Both fexes, arm'd with guilt and spite,
Against Vaneffa's pow'r unite:
To copy her few nymphs afpir'd;
Her virtues fewer fwains admir'd:
So ftars beyond a certain height
Give mortals neither heat nor light.
Yet fome of either sex, endow'd With gifts fuperior to the crowd,
With virtue, knowledge, tafte, and wit,
She condefcended to admit.
With pleafing arts fhe could reduce
Men's talents to their proper ufe ;
And with address each genius held
To that, wherein it most excell'd;
Thus making others wisdom known,
Could please them, and improve her own.
A modeft youth faid fomething new;
She plac'd it in the strongest view.
All humble worth fhe ftrove to raise;
Would not be prais'd, yet lov'd to praise.
The learned met with free approach,
Although they came not in a coach:
Some clergy too fhe would allow,
Nor quarrel'd at their aukward bow.
But this was for Cadenus' fake,
A gownman of a diff'rent make;
Whom Pallas, once Vaneffa's tutor,
Had fix'd on for her coadjutor.
But Cupid, full of mischief, longs
To vindicate his mother's wrongs.
On Pallas all attempts are vain :
One way he knows to give her pain;
Vows on Vaneffa's heart to take
Due vengeance, for her patron's fake.
Thofe early feeds by Venus fown,
In spite of Pallas, now were grown ;
And Cupid hop'd, they would improve
By time, and ripen into love.
The boy made ufe of all his craft,
In vain discharging many a shaft,
Pointed at col'nels, lords, and beaux:
Cadenus warded off the blows;
For, placing ftill fome books betwixt
'The darts were in the cover fix'd,
Or, often blunted and recoil'd,
On Plutarch's Morals ftruck, were spoil'd.
The queen of Wisdom could foresee,
But not prevent the fate's decree :
And human caution tries in vain
To break that adamantine chain.
Vaneffa, though by Pallas taught,
By Love invulnerable thought,
Searching in books for wifdom's aid,
Was, in the very fearch, betray'd.
. Cupid, though all his darts were loft,
Yet ftill refolv'd to spare no cost:
He could not answer to his fame
The triumphs of that ftubborn dame,
A nymph fo hard to be fubdu'd,
Who neither was coquette nor prude.
I find, faid he, fhe wants a doctor,
Both to adore her, and inftru&t her;
I'll give her what fhe most admires ;
Among thofe venerable fires
Cadenus is a fubject fit,
Grown old in politics and wit,
Of half mankind the dread and hate:
Whate'er vexations love attend,
She need no rivals apprehend.
Her fex, with univerfal voice,
Muft laugh at her capricious choice.
Cadenus many things had writ:
Vaneffa much efteem'd his wit,
And call'd for his poetic works:
Mean time the boy in fecret lurks,
And, while the book was in her hand,
The urchin from his private ftand
Took aim, and fhot with all his strength
A dart of fuch prodigious length,
It pierc'd the feeble volume through,
And deep transfix'd her bofom too.
Some lines, more moving than the reft,
Stuck to the point that pierc'd her breaft,
And, borne directly to the heart,
With pains unknown increas'd her smart.
Vaneffa, not of years a score,
Dreams of a gown of forty-four;
Imaginary charms can find
In eyes with reading almost blind:
Cadenus now no more appears
Declin'd in health, advanc'd in years,
She fancies mufic in his tongue,
Nor farther looks, but thinks him young.
What mariner is not afraid
To venture in a ship decay'd?
What planter will attempt to yoke
A fapling with a falling oak?
As years increase, fhe brighter shines ;
Cadenus with each day declines;
And he must fall a prey to time,
While fhe continues in her prime.
Cadenus, common forms apart,
In ev'ry scene had kept his heart;
Had figh'd and languish'd, vow'd and writ
For paftime, or to fhew his wit.
But time, and books, and state-affairs,
Had fpoil'd his fashionable airs:
He now could praise, esteem, approve,
But understood not what was love.
His conduct might have made him stil’d
A father, and the nymph his child.
That innocent delight he took
To see the virgin mind her book,
Was but the master's fecret joy
In fchool to hear the finest boy.
Her knowledge with her fancy grew;
She hourly prefs'd for fomething new;
Ideas came into her mind
So faft, his leffons lagg'd behind;
She reafon'd without plodding long,
Nor ever gave her judgment wrong.
But now a fudden change was wrought;
She minds no longer what he taught.
Cadenus was amaz'd to find
Such marks of a diftracted mind:
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