The task were endless all the reft to trace:
Yet grant the were a Venus for her Face,
And Shape, yet others equal Beauty share;
And time was, you could live without the fair:
She does no more, in that for which you woo,
Than homelier Women full as well can do.
Befides the daubs, and ftinks so much of paint,
Her own Attendants cannot bear the fcent,
But laugh behind, and bite their Lips to hold;
Mean time excluded, and expos'd to cold,
The whining Lover ftands before the Gates,
And there with humble adoration waits :
Crowning with flow'rs the threshold and the floor,
And printing kiffes on th' obdurate Door:
Who, if admitted in that nick of time,
If fome unfav'ry Whiff betray the crime,
Invents a quarrel ftraight, if there be none,
Or makes fome faint Excufes to be gone:
And calls himself a doating Fool to ferve,
Afcribing more than Woman can deserve.
Which well they understand like cunning Queans;
And hide their naftiness behind the Scenes,
From him they have allur'd, and would retain;
But to a peircing Eye, 'tis all-in vain :
For common Sense brings all their Cheats to view,
And the falfe light difcovers by the true :
Which a wife Harlot owns, and hopes to find
A pardon for defects, that run thro' all the kind.
Nor always do they feign the fweets of Love,
When round the panting Youth their pliant Limbs
they move;
And cling, and heave, and moiften ev'ry kiss,
They often share, and more than fhare the blifs :
From every part, ev'n to their inmoft Soul,
They feel the trickling Joys, and run with vigour
Stirr'd with the fame impetuous defire
[quire: Birds, Beafts, and Herds, and Mares, their Males re
Because the throbbing Nature in their Veins
Provokes them to affwage their kindly Pains :
The lufty leap th' expecting Female ftands,
By mutual Heat compell'd to mutual Bands.
Thus Dogs with lolling Tongues by love are ty'd;
Nor fhouting Boys, nor blows their Union can divide:
At either end they ftrive the link to loose;
In vain, for ftronger Venus holds the noose.
Which never would those wretched Lovers do,
But that the common Heats of Love they know ;
The pleasure therefore must be shar'd in common
And when the Woman's more prevailing juice
Sucks in the Man's, the mixture will produce
The Mother's likeness; when the Man prevails,
His own refemblance in the Seed he feals.
But when we see the new begotten Race
Reflect the Features of each Parent's Face,
Then of the Father's and the Mother's Blood,
The justly temper'd Seed is understood :
When both confpire, with equal ardour bent,
From every Limb the due proportion fent,
When neither party foils, when neither foil'd,
This gives the blended Features of the Child.
Sometimes the Boy, the Grandfire's image bears;
Sometimes the more remote Progenitor he shares ;
Because the genial Atomes of the Seed
Lie long conceal'd e'er they exert the breed:
And after fundry Ages paft, produce
The tardy likeness of the latent juice.
Hence Families fuch different Figures take, [Make.
And reprefent their Ancestors in Face, and Hair, and
Because of the fame Seed, the Voice, and Hair,
And shape, and face, and other members are,
And the fame antick Mould the likeness does
prepare.
Thus oft the Father's likeness does prevail
In Females, and the Mother's in the Male,"
For fince the Seed is of a double kind,
From that where we the moft refemblance find,.
We may conclude the ftrongeft Tincture fent,
And that was in conception prevalent.
Nor can the vain decrees of Pow'rs above
Deny production to the act of Love,
Or hinder Fathers of that happy Name,
Or with a barren Womb the Matron fhame;
As many think, who ftain with Victims Blood
The mournful Altars, and with Incenfe load:
To bless the show'ry Seed with future Life,
And to impregnate the well-labour'd Wife.
In vain they weary Heav'n with Prayer, or fly
To Oracles, or Magick Numbers try:
For Barrenness of Sexes will proceed,
Either from too Condens'd, or watry Seed;
The watry Juice too foon diffolves away,
And in the parts projected will not ftay;
The too Condens'd, unfoul'd, unwieldly Mafs
Drops fhort, nor carries to the deftin'd place:
Nor pierces to the parts, nor, though injected home,
Will mingle with the kindly moisture of the Womb.
For Nuptials are unlike in their Success,
Some Men, with fruitful Seed fome Women blefs 3
And from fome Men fome Women fruitful are;
Juft as their Conftitutions join or jar:
And many, feeming barren Wives have been,
Who, after match'd with more prolifick Men,
Have fill'd a Family with pratling Boys:
And many not fupply'd at home with joys,
Have found a Friend abroad, to ease their smart,
And to perform the Saplefs Husband's part.
So much it does import, that Seed with Seed
Should of the kindly mixture make the Breed:
And thick with thin, and thin with thick fhould join,
So to produce and propagate the Line.
Of fuch concernment too is Drink and Food,
T'incraffate, or attenuate the Blood..
Of like importance is the Pofture too,
In which the genial feat of Love we do:
For as the Females of the four-foot kind,
Receive the leapings of their Males behind;
So the good Wives, with Loins uplifted high,
And leaning on their Hands the fruitful ftroke
may try:
For in that pofture will they beft conceive :
Not when fupinely laid they frisk and heave;
For active Motions only break the blow,
And more of Strumpets than of Wives they show;
When answering ftroke with ftroke, the mingled
Liquors flow.
Endearments eager, and too brisk a bound,
Throws off the Plow-fhare from the furrow'd ground,
But common Harlots in Conjunction heave,
Because 'tis lefs their Business to conceive
Than to delight, and to provoke the deed;
A trick which honeft Wives but little need.
Nor is it from the Gods, or Cupid's dart,
That many a homely Woman takes the Heart;
But Wives well humour'd, dutiful, and chaste,
And clean, will hold their wandring Husbands fast,
Such are the Links of Love, and fuch a Love will
laft.
For what remains, long habitude, and use,
Will kindness in domeftick Bands produce:
For Cuftom will a ftrong Impreffion leave;
Hard Bodies, which the lighteft ftroke receive,
In length of time, will moulder and decay,
And stones with drops of Rain are wash'd away.
Helpless of all that human Wants require:
Expos'd upon unhofpitable Earth,
From the first moment of his hapless Birth.
Straight with foreboding Cries he fills the Room;
(Too true prefages of his future Doom.)
But Flocks and Herds, and every favage Beaft
By more indulgent Nature are increas'd..
They want no Rattles for their froward mood,
Nor Nurfe to reconcile them to their Food,
With broken words; nor Winter blafts they fear,
Nor change their Habits with the changing Year:
Nor, for their Safety, Citadels prepare;
Nor forge the wicked Inftruments of War:
Unlabour'd Earth her bounteous Treafure grants,
And Nature's lavish Hand fupplies their common
Wants.
From Theocritus Idyll. 27.
By Mr. DRYDEN.
DAPHNI S.
HE Shepherd Paris bore the Spartan Bride
By force away, and then by force enjoy'd;
But I by free confent can boaft a Blifs,
A fairer Helen, and a fweeter kifs.
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