Virtue rejects the foul disguise:

None merit praise who praise despise.
Slight not, in fupercilious ftrain,
Long practis'd modes, as low or vain!
The world will vindicate their cause,
And claim blind faith in Cuftom's laws.
Safer, with multitudes, to ftray,
Than tread, alone, a fairer way;
To mingle with the erring throng,
Than boldly speak ten millions wrong.

Beware of the relentless train

Whom forms adore, whom forms maintain!
Left prudes demure, or coxcombs loud,
Accufe thee to the partial crowd;
Foes who the laws of honour flight,
A judge who measures guilt by fpite.
Behold the fage Aurelia stand,
Difgrace and Fame at her command;
As if Heav'n's delegate defign'd,
Sole arbiter of all her kind.
Whether the try fome favour'd piece,
By rules devis'd in antient Greece;
Or whether, modern in her flight,
She tells what Paris thinks polite :
For, much her talents to advance,
She ftudy'd Greece, and travell'd France.
There learn'd the happy art to please, i
With all the charms of labour'd eafe ;
Thro' looks and nods with meaning fraught,

To teach what he was never taught.

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By

By her each latent fpring is feen;
The workings foul of fecret fpleen;
The guilt that skulks in fair pretence,
Or folly, veil'd in fpecious fenfe.
And much her righteous fpirit grieves, ́
When worthleffness the world deceives;
Whether the erring crowd commends,
Some patriot fway'd by private ends;
Or husband truft a faithlefs wife,
Secure, in ignorance, from ftrife.
Averse she brings their deeds to view,
But juftice claims the rig'rous due ;
Humanely anxious to produce,
At leaft, fome poffible excufe.
O ne'er may virtue's dire difgrace
Prepare a triumph for the bafe!

Meer forms the fool implicit fway,
Which witlings with contempt furvey;
Blind folly no defect can fee,

Half wisdom views but one degree.
The wife remoter ufes reach,

Which judgment and experience teach.
Whoever wou'd be pleas'd and pleafe,
Muft do what others do with ease.
Great precept, undefin'd by rule,
And only learn'd in Custom's school;
To no peculiar form confin'd,
It fpreads thro' all the human kind;
Beauty, and wit, and worth fupplies,
Yet graceful in the good and wife.

Rich with this gift, and none befide,
In Fashion's ftream how many glide?
Secure from ev'ry mental woe,
From treach'rous friend or open foe;
From focial fympathy, that fhares
The public lofs or private cares;
Whether the barb'rous foe invade,
Or merit pine in Fortune's fhade.
Hence gentle Anna, ever gay,
The fame to-morrow as to-day.
Save where, perchance, when others weep
Her cheek the decent forrow fteep.
Save when, perhaps, a melting tale,
O'er ev'ry tender breaft prevail.

The good, the bad, the great, the small,
She likes, fhe loves, the honours all.
And yet, if fland'rous malice blame,
Patient fhe yields a fifter's fame.
Alike if fatyr or if praise,

She says whate'er the circle fays;
Implicit does whate'er they do,
Without one point in wish or view.
Sure teft of others, faithful glafs,
Thro' which the various phantoms pafs..
Wide blank, unfeeling when alone;
No care, no joy, no thought her own.

Not thus fucceeds the peerless dame,
Who looks, and talks, and acts for fame';
Intent, fo wide her cares extend,

To make the univerfe her friend.

Now

Now with the gay in frolics fhines, Now reafons deep with deep divines. extols the great,

With courtiers now

With patriots fighs o'er Britain's fate.
Now breathes with zealots holy fires,
Now melts in lefs refin'd defires.

Doom'd to exceed in each degree,

Too wife, too weak, too proud, too free;
Too various for one fingle word,

3

The high fublime of deep abfurd.
While ev'ry talent nature grants

Juft ferves to fhew how much he wants.

The virtues of our sex and thine:

Her hand refrains the widow's tears ;

Her fenfe informs, and fooths, and cheers:
Yet, like an angel in difguife,

She shines but to fome favour'd eyes;

Nor is the diftant herd allow'd
To view the radiance thro' the cloud,
But thine is ev'ry winning art;
Thine is the friendly, honest heart;
And fhou'd the gen'rous fpirit flow:
Beyond where prudence fears to go s
Such fallies are of nobler kind, :
Than virtues of a narrow mind,

I

HANS CARVE L.

This bagatelle, for which, by the bye, Mr. Pricr has got his greatest reputation, was a tale told in. all the old Italian collections of jefts, and borrowed from thence by Fontaine. It had been tranflated once or twice before into English, yet, was never regarded till it fell into the hands of Mr. Prior. Aftrong inftance how much every thing is improved in the hands of a man of genius.

H

ANS CARVEL, impotent and old,

Married a lafs of London mold:
Handfome enough; extremely gay;
Lov'd mufic, company, and play :
High flights fhe had, and wit at will;
And so her tongue lay feldom still:
For, in all vifits, who but fhe,

To argue, or to repartee?

She made it plain, that human paffion!

Was order'd by predeftination;

That if weak women went aftray,'

Their stars were more in fault than they
Whole tragedies fhe had by heart:
Enter'd into Roxana's part:
To triumph in her rival's blood,
The action, certainly, was good.

How