But, in its proper channels gliding fair;
A common benefit, which all

may

share. Yet half mankind this easy good disdain,

Nor relish happiness unbought by pain; inst False is their taste of bliss, and thence their search

is vain.
So idle, yet so restless, are our minds,
We climb the Alps, and brave the raging winds;
Through various toils to seek Content we roanı,
Which with but thinking right were ours at home,
For not the ceaseless change of shifted place
Can from the heart a fettled grief erase,
Nor can the purer balm of foreign air
Heal the distemper'd mind of aking care.
Thę wretch, by wild impatience driven to rove,
Vext with the pangs of ill-requited love,
From Pole to Pole the fatal arrow bears,
Whose rooted point his bleeding bosom tears;
With equal pain each different clime he tries,
And is himself that torment which he flies.

For how should ills, which from our passions flows
Be chang'd by Africk's heat, or Russia's snow:
Or how can aught but powerful reason cure
What from unthinking folly we endure ?
Happy is He, and He alone, who knows
His heart's uneasy discord to compose;
In generous love of others good, to find
The sweetest pleasures of the social mind;
To bound his wishes in their proper sphere;
To nourish pleasing hope, and conquer anxious fear :
This was the wisdom ancicnt sages taught,
This was the sovereign good they justly sought;.
This to no place or climate is confind,
But the free native produce of the mind.

Nor think, my Lord, that courts to you deny
The useful practice of philofophy :
Horace, the wisest of the tuneful choir,
Not always chose from greatness to retire ;
But, in the palace of Augustus, knew
The same unerring maxims to pursue,
Which, in the Sabine or the Velian shade,
His study and his happiness he made.

May you, my friend, by his example taughte
View all the giddy scene with sober thought;
Undazzled every glittering folly see,
And in the midst of Navish forms be free;
In its own centre keep your steady mind,
Let Prudence guide you, but let Honour hind. -
In show, in manners, act the courtier's part;
But be a country gentleman at heart

ADVICE TO A LADY. 173.50

a

HE counsels of a friend, Belinda, hear,

Too roughly kind to please a lady's ear,
Unlike the flatteries of a lover's pen,
Such truths as women seldom learn from mon,

Nor think I praise you ill, when thus I show
What female vanity might fear to know.
Some merit 's mine, to dare to be sincere;
But greater yours, sincerity to bear.

Hard is the fortune that your sex attends ;
Women, like princes, find few real friends :
All who approach them their own ends pursue ;
Lovers and Ministers are seldom true.
Hence oft from Reason heedless Beauty ftrays,
And the most trusted guide the most betrays :
Hence, by fond dreams of fancied power amus'd,
When most ye tyrannize, you're most abus’d.

What is your sex's earliest, latest care,
Your heart's supreme ambition ? - To be fair.
For this, the toilet every thought employs,
Hence all the toils of dress, and all the joys :
For this, hands, lips, and eyes, are put to school,
And each instructed feature has its rule:
And yet how few have learnt, when this is given,
Not to disgrace the partial boon of Heaven! .
How few with all their pride of form can move!
How few are lovely, that are made for love!
Do you, my fair, endeavour to possess
An elegance of mind as well as dress;
Be that your ornament, and know to please
By graceful Nature's unaffected ease.

Nor make to dangerous wit a vain pretence,
But wisely rest content with modest sense ;
For wit, like wine, intoxicates the brain,
Too strong for feeble woman to sustain:

Of

Of those who claim it more than half have none;
And half of those who have it are undone.

Be still superior to your sex’s arts,
Nor think dishonesty a proof of parts:
For

you, the plainest is the wiselt rule :
A cunning woman is a knavish fool.

Be good yourself, nor think another's shame
Can raise
your merit, or adorn

your

fame.
Prudes rail at whores, as statesmen in disgracé
At ministers, because they with their place.
Virtue is amiable, mild, serene;
Without, all beauty; and all peace within :
The honour of a prude is rage

and storm,
'Tis ugliness in its most frightful form.
Fiercely it ftands, defying gods and men,
As fiery monsters guard a giant's den.

Seek to be good, but aim not to be great :-
A woman's noblest station is retreat :
Her fairest virtues fly from public fight,
Domestic worth, that shuns too strong a light.

To rougher man Ambition's talk resign
'Tis ours in senates or in courts to shine,
To labour for a funk corrupted state,
Or dare the rage of Envy, and be great.
One only care your gentle breasts should move,
Th’important business of

your

life is love;
To this great point direct your constant aim,
This makes your happiness, and this your fame.

Be never cool reserve with passion join'd;
With caution chufe; but then be fondly kind.

The

The felfith heart, that but by halves is given,
Shall find no place in Love's delightful heaven;
Here sweet extremes alone can truly bless :
The virtue of a lover is excess.

A maid unalk'd may own a well-plac'd flame;
Not loving first, but loving wrong, is shame,

Contemn the little pride of giving pain,
Nor think that conquest justifies disdain.
Short is the period of insulting power :
Offended Cupid finds his vengeful hour ;
Soon will resume the empire which he gave,
And foon the tyrant shall become the flave.

Blest is the maid, and worthy to be blest,
Whose soul, entire by him (e loves possest,
Feels every vanity in fondness lost,
And asks no power but that of pleasing most:
Hers is the bliss, in just return, to prove
The honest warmth of undissembled love ; .
For her, inconstant man might cease to range,
And gratitude forbid desire to change.

But, lest harsh care the lover's peace destroy,
And roughly blignt the tender buds of joy,
Let Reason teach what Passion fain would hide, ,
That Hymen's bands by Prudence should be tied,
Venus in vain the wedded pair would crown,
If angry Fortune on their union frown :
Soon will the flattering dream of bliss be o'er,
And cloy'd imagination cheat no more.
Then, waking to the sense of lasting pain,
With mutual tears the nuptial couch they stain;

And