The moment that your vapours rife,
We fee them dropping from your eyes.
In evening fair you may behold

The clouds are fring'd with borrow'd' gold;
And this is many a lady's cafe,

Who flaunts about in borrow'd lace.
"Grave matrons are like clouds of fnow,
Their words fall thick, and foft, and flow;
While brifk coquettes, like rattling hail,
Our ears on every fide affail.

Clouds, when they intercept our fight,
Deprive us of celestial light:

So when my Cloe I purfue,
No heaven befides I have in view.
Thus, on comparifon, you fee,

In every inftance they agree,
So like, fo very much the fame,
That one may go by t'other's name.
Let me proclaim it then aloud,

That

every woman is a cloud.

ANSWER. BY DR. SWIFT.

PRESUMPTUOUS Bard! how could you dare

A woman with a cloud compare?

Strange, pride and infolence you 'fhow
Inferior mortals there below.
And is our thunder in your ears
So frequent or fo' loud as theirs?

Alas!

But wonen in a cloudy we
Torch & both to pet, “ili heft t
A cloud in parpar šmations provide
#fis bladings dewyn i fenfe
But wonnen was by fals deligh'A
To pour down cuits me menkint

When Sirius o'er this weikin tadpay
Our kindly help his fus allenges.
But woman is a surf infeuer,
No parish ducking Bool can tamen php
To kindle (trife, dame Nature lac{ }** $
Like fire-works, the can barn in waterz

For fickleness how durft you blame us,
Who for our constancy are famous ?
You'll fee a cloud in gentle weather
Keep the fame face an hour together;
While women, if it could be reckon'd,
Change every feature every second.
Obferve our figure in a morning,
Of foul or fair we give you warning;
But can you guess from woman's air
One minute, whether foul or fair?

Go read in ancient books enroll'd
What honours we poffefs'd of old.
To disappoint Ixion's rape

Jove dreft a cloud in Juno's shape;
Which when he had enjoy'd, he swore,
No goddefs could have pleas'd him more;
No difference could he find between
His cloud and Jove's imperial queen :
His cloud produc'd a race of Centaurs,
Fam'd for a thousand bold adventures;
From us defcended ab origine,

By learned authors call'd nubigenæ,

But fay, what earthly nymph do you know,
So beautiful to pass for Juno?

Before Æneas durst aspire

To court her majefty of Tyre,

His mother begg'd of us to drefs him,
That Dido might the more carefs him :
A coat we gave him, dy'd in grain,
A flaxen wig and clouded cane

(The

You wordig wher 54s la run,
And from your own experience (sow
We gosera all things there show
You follow where we pleate to gide,
O'er all your nations we prefide,
Can raife them up, or ink them down,
As we think fit to fmile or frown s
And, just as we difpofe

your brats,
Are witty, dull, rejoice, compaia.
Compare us then to female race!
We, to whom all the gods give piace!
Who better challenge your allegiance,
Because we dwell in higher regions!
Y 3

You find the gods in Homer dwell

In seas and streams, or low hell:

as

Ev'n Jove, and Mercury his pîmp,
No higher climb than mount Olymp
(Who makes you think the clouds he pierces ?
He pierce the clouds! he kifs their a—es);
While we, o'er Teneriffa plac'd,

Are loftier by a mile at least :

And, when Apollo ftruts on Pindus,
We fee him from our kitchen-windows;
Or, to Parnaffus looking down,

Can pifs upon his laurel crown.

Fate never form'd the gods to fly;
In vehicles they mount the sky:

When Jove would fome fair nymph inveigle,
He comes full gallop on his eagle.

Though Venus be as light as air,

She muft have doves to draw her chair.

Apollo ftirs not out of door

Without his lacker'd coach and four.
And jealous Juno, ever fnarling,
Is drawn by peacocks in her berlin.
But we can fly where'er we pleafe,
O'er cities, rivers, hills, and feas :
From eaft to weft the world we roam,
And in all climates are at home;

With care provide you as we go

With fun-fhine, rain, and hail, or fnow.
You, when it rains, like fools, believe
Jove piffes on you through a fieve :

An