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Live, and love on; you will be true, I know; "But live then, and come back to tell me fo; "For tho' I blush at this last guilty breath, "I can endure that better than your death." Tormenting kindnefs! barbarous reprieve! Condemn'd to die, and yet compell'd to live!.

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This tender fcene my dream repeated o'er, Juft as it pafs'd in real truth before. Methought I then fell grovelling to the ground, Till, on a fudden rais'd, I, wond'ring, found A ftrange appearance all in taintless white; His form gave reverence, and his face delight; Goodness and greatness in his eyes were seen, Gentle his look, and affable his mien. A kindly notice of me thus he took; "What mean these flowing eyes, this ghaftly look, "Thefe trembling joints, this loofe difhevell'd hair, "And this cold dew, the drops of deep despair?”

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With grief and wonder firft my spirits faint, 96 But thus at last I vented my complaint:

Behold a wretch whom cruel Fate has found,
And in the depth of all misfortune drown'd.
There shines a nymph to whom an envy'dfwain ICO
Is ty'd in Hymen's ceremonious chain;

But, cloy'd with charms of fuch a marriage-bed,
And fed with manna, yet he longs for bread,
And will, most husband-like, not only range
For love perhaps of nothing else but change,

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But to inferior beauty proftrate lies, And courts her love in fcorn of Flavia's eyes. "All this I knew, (the form divine reply'd) "And did but afk to have thy temper try'd, "Which prove fincere. Of both I know the mind; "She is too fcrupulous, and thou too kind: "But fince thy fatal love 's for ever fix'd, "Whatever time or abfence come betwixt;

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"Since thy fond heart ev'n her difdain prefers
"To others' love, I'll fomething foften her's; 115
"Elfe in the fearch of virtue fhe may fray;
"Well-meaning mortals should not lose their way.
"She now indeed fins on the fafer fide,
"For hearts too loofe are never to be ty'd;
"But no extremes are either good or wife,
"And in the midst alone true virtue lies.
"When marriage-vows unite an equal pair,
""Tis a mere contract made by human care,
"By which they both are for convenience ty'd,
"The bridegroom yet more ftrictly than the bride;
"For circumstances alter ev'ry ill,
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"And woman meets with moft temptation ftill;
"She a forfaken bed muft often bear,
"While he can never fail to find her there,

"And therefore lefs excus'd to range elsewhere.
"Yet this fhe ought to fuffer, and submit:
"But when no longer for each other fit,
"If ufage bafe fhall just refentment move,
66 Or, what is worfe, affronts of wand'ring love,

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"No obligation after that remains:
"'Tis mean, not juft, to wear a rival's chains.

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"Yet decency requires the wonted cares "Of int'reft, children, and remote affairs; "But in her love, that dear concern of life, "She all the while may be another's wife: "Heav'n,that beholds her wrong'd and widow'dbed, "Permits a lover in her husband's ftead."

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I flung me at his feet, his robes would kifs, And cry'd-Ev'n our base world is just in this; Amidst our cenfures love we gently blame, And love fometimes preferves a female fame. What tie less strong can woman's will reftrain? When honour checks, and confcience pleads in vain; When parents' threats and friends' perfuafions fail, When int'reft and ambition scarce prevail,

To bound that fex when nothing elfe can move,

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They'll live referv'd to please the man they love!
The spirit then reply'd to all I faid,

"She may be kind, but not till thou art dead;
"Bewail thy memory, bemoan thy fate;
"Then she will love, when 't is, alas! too late :
"Of all thy pains she will no pity have
"Till fad defpair has fent thee to the grave."

Amaz'd, I wak'd in haste,

All trembling at my doom;

Dreams oft' repeat adventures past,

And tell our ills to come.

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THE RAPTURE.

I YIELD, I yield, and can no longer ftay

My eager thoughts, that force themselves away.
Sure none infpir'd (whose heat transports them still
Above their reason, and beyond their will)
Can firm against the strong impulse remain;
Cenfure itself were not fo fharp a pain.
Let vulgar minds submit to vulgar sway;
What Ignorance shall think, or Malice say,
To me are trifles, if the knowing few,
Who can fee faults, but can fee beauties too,
Applaud that genius which themselves partake,
And fpare the Poet for the Mufe's fake.

The Mufe, who raises me from humble ground,
To view the vaft and various world around;
How fast I mount! in what a wondrous way
I grow transported to this large furvey!

I value earth no more, and far below
Methinks I fee the bufy pigmies go.
My foul entranc'd is in a rapture brought
Above the common tracks of vulgar thought:
With fancy wing'd, I feel the purer air,
And with contempt look down on human care.

Airy Ambition, ever soaring high,

Stands first expos'd to my cenforious eye.
Behold fome toiling up a flipp'ry hill,

Where, tho' arriv'd, they must be toiling still;

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Some with unfteady feet just fall'n to ground,
Others at top, whose heads are turning round.
To this high fphere it happens still that some
The most unfit are forwardest to come;
Yet among these are princes forc'd to chufe,
Or feek out fuch as would perhaps refuse.
Favour too great is fafely plac'd on none,
And foon becomes a dragon or a drone;
Either remifs and negligent of all,
Or elfe imperious and tyrannical.

The Mufe inspires me now to look again,
And fee a meaner fort of fordid men
Doting on little heaps of yellow duft,
For that defpifing honour, ease, and lust.
Let other bards, expreffing how it shines,
Defcribe with envy what the miser finds;
Only as heaps of dirt it seems to me,
Where we fuch despicable vermine see,

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Who creep thro' filth a thousand crooked ways, 45
Infenfible of infamy or praise;

Loaded with guilt, they still pursue their course,
Not ev'n restrain'd by love or friendship's force.
Not to enlarge on fuch an obvious thought,
Behold their folly, which tranfcends their fault! 50
Alas! their cares and cautions only tend

To gain the means, and then to lose the end;
Like heroes in romances, ftill in fight

For mistreffes that yield them no delight.

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