First your fair feet they shape, and shape to please ;
Each ftands defign'd for dignity and ease.
Firm, on thefe curious pedeitais, depend
Two polish'd pillars; which, as fair, ascend;
From well-wrought knees, more fair, more large, they rife;
Seen by the Muse, though hid from mortal eyes.
More polish'd yet, your fabric each fuftains;
That pureft temple where perfection reigns.
A fmall, fweet circle forms your faultlefs waift,
By Beauty fhap'd, to be by Love embrac'd.
Beyond that leffening waist, two orbs devise,
What fwelling charms, in fair proportion, rife!
Fresh peeping there, two blushing buds are found,
Each like a rofe, which lilies white furround.
There feeling fenfe, let pitying fighs infpire,
Till panting pity fwells to warm defire :
Defire, though warm, is chafte; each warmest kifs,
All rapture chafte, when Hymen bids the blifs.
Rounding and foft, two taper arms defcend;
Two fnow-white hands, in taper fingers, end.
Lo! cunning Beauty, on each palm, designs
Love's fortune and your own, in mystic lines;
And lovely whiteness, either arm contains,
Diverfified with azure-wandering veins;
The wandering veins conceal a generous flood,
The purple treasure of celeftial blood.
Rounding and white your neck, as curious, rears
O'er all a face, where Beauty's felf appears.
Her foft attendants smooth the spotless skin,
And, fmoothly-oval, turn the fhapely chin;
The shapely chin, to Beauty's rifing face,
Shall, doubling gently, give a double grace,
And foon fweet-opening, rofy lips disclose
The well-rang'd teeth, in lily-whitening rows;
Here life is breath'd, and florid life affumes
A breath, whofe fragrance vies with vernal blooms;
And two fair cheeks give modesty to raise
A beauteous blush at praife, though just the praise.
And nature now, from each kind ray, fupplies
Soft, clement fmiles, and love-inspiring eyes;
New Graces, to thofe eyes, mild fhades, allow;
Fringe their fair lids, and pencil either brow.
While fenfe of vifion lights up orbs fo rare,
May none, but pleafing objects, vifit there!
Two little porches, (which, one fenfe empowers, 55
To draw rich fcent from aromatic flowers)
In ftructure neat, and deck'd with polish'd grace,
Shall equal first, then heighten, Beauty's face.
To fmelling fenfe, oh, may the flowery year,
It's firft, laft, choiceft incenfe, offer here!
Tranfparent next, two curious crefcents bound
The two-fold entrance of infpiring found,
And, granting a new power of sense to hear,
New finer organs form each curious ear;
Form to imbibe what moft the foul can move,
Mufic and Reason, Poefy and Love.
Next, on an open front, is pleafing wrought
A pensive sweetness, born of patient thought:
Above your lucid fhoulders locks difplay'd,
Prone to defcend, fhall foften light with fhade.
All, with a nameless air and mein, unite,
And, as you move, each movement is delight.
Tun'd is your melting tongue and equal mind,
At once by knowledge heighten'd and refin'd.
The Virtues next to Beauty's nod incline;
For, where they lend not light, the cannot shine
Let thefe, the temperate fenfe of tefte reveal,
And give, while nature spreads the fimple meal.
The palate pure, to relifh health defign'd,
From luxury as taintlefs as your mind.
The Virtues, Chastity and Truth, impart,
And mould to sweet benevolence your heart.
Thus Beauty finish'd-Thus the gains the sway,
And Love ftill follows where he leads the way.
From every gift of heaven, to charm is thine;
To love, to praife, and to adore, be mine.
MRS. BRIDGET JONES,
With THE WANDERER.
Alluding to an Epifode, where a young Man turns
Hermit, for the lofs of his wife Olympia.
HEN with delight fond Love on Beauty dwelt,
While this the youth, and that the fair expreft,
Faint was his joy compar'd to what I felt,
When in my angel Biddy's prefence bleft.
Tell her, my Mufe, in soft, fad, fighing breath,
If the his piercing grief can pitying fee,
Worfe than to him was his Olympia's death,
From her each moment's abfence is to me.
URE of all plagues with which dull profe is curft,
Scandals, from falfe hiftorians, spot the worst.
In queft of these the Mufe fhall first advance,
Bold, to explore the regions of romance;
Romance, call'd Hiftory-Lo! at once the skims
The vifionary world of monkish whims;
Where fallacy, in legends, wildly fhines,
And vengeance glares from violated shrines;
Where faints perform all tricks, and startle thought
With many a miracle that ne'er was wrought;
Saints that never liv'd, or fuch as juftice paints,
Jugglers, on fuperkition palm'd for faints.
Here, canoniz'd, let creed-mongers be shown,
Red-letter'd faints, and red affaffins known;
While those they martyr'd, fuch as angels rofe! 15
All black enroll'd among religion's foes,
Snatch'd by fulphureous clouds, a LYE proclaims
Number'd with fiends, and plung'd in endless flames.
History, from air or deep draws many a fpright,
Such as, from nurse or priest, might boys affright; 20
Or fuch as but o'er feverish flumbers fly,
And fix in melancholy frenzy's eye.
Now meteors make enthusiast-wonder stare,
And image wild portentous wars in air!
Seers fall intranc'd! fome wizard's lawless skill
Now whirls, now fetters nature's works at will!
Thus Hiftory, by machine, mock-epic, seems,
Not from poetic, but from monkith dreams.
The devil, who priest and forcerer must obey,
The forcerer us'd to raife, the parfon lay.
When Echard wav'd his pen, the history fhows,
The parfon conjur'd, and the fiend uprofe.
A camp at diftance, and the fcene a wood,
Here enter'd Noll, and there old Satan flood:
No tail his rump, his foot no hoof reveal'd;
Like a wife cuckold, with his horns conceal'd:
Not a gay ferpent, glittering to the eye;
But more than ferpent, or than harlot fly:
For, lawyer-like, a fiend no wit can scape,
The demon ftands confeft in proper shape!
Now fpreads his parchment, now is fign'd the feroil;
Thus Noll gains empire, and the devil has Noll.
Wondrous hiftorian! thus account for evil,
And thus for its fuccefs-'tis all the devil.
Though ne'er that devil we faw, yet one we fee,-45
One of an author fure, and-thou art he.
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