Abash'd at what they faw and heard,
Flew off, nor ever more appear'd.

Adieu to ravishing delights,
High raptures and romantic flights ;
To goddeffes fo heavenly sweet,
Expiring fhepherds at their feet;
To filver meads and fhady bowers,
Dreft up with amaranthine flowers.

How great a change! how quickly
made !

They learn to call a fpade a spade.
They foon from all constraint are freed;
Can fee each other do their need.
On box of cedar fits the wife,

And makes it warm for dearest life;
And, by the beastly way of thinking,
Find great fociety in ftinking,
Now Strephon daily entertains
His Chloe in the homelieft ftrains;
And Chloe, more experienc'd grown,
With int'reft pays him back his own,
No maid at court is lefs afham'd,
Howe'er for felling bargains fam'd,
Than fhe, to name her parts behind,
Or when a bed to let out wind.

Fair decency, celeftial maid,
Descend from heaven to beauty's aid;
Though beauty may beget defire,
'Tis thou must fan the lover's fire;
For beauty, like fupreme dominion,
Is beft fupported by opinion:
If decency bring no fupplies,
Opinion falls, and beauty dies.

To see some radiant nymph appear
In all her glittering birth-day gear,
You think fome goddess from the sky
Defcended, ready cut and dry:
But, ere you fell yourself to laughter,
Confider well what may come after;
For fine ideas vanish fast,

While all the gross and filthy last.

O Strephon, e'er that fatal day When Chloe ftole your heart away, Had you but through a cranny spy'd On house of ease your future bride, In all the poftures of her face, Which nature gives in fuch a cafe, Distortions, groanings, ftrainings, heavings,

"Twere better you had lickt her leavings,

P 4

Than

fmelt;

Then from experience find too late
Your goddess grown a filthy mate.
Your fancy then had always dwelt
On what you faw, and what you
Would ftill the fame ideas give ye,
As when you spy'd her on the privy.
And, 'fpight of Chloe charms divine,
Your heart had been as whole as mine.

Authorities, both old and recent, Direct that women must be decent ; And from the spouse each blemish hide More than from all the world befide

Unjustly all our nymphs complain Their empire holds fo fhort a reign: Is after marriage lost so soon, It hardly holds the honey-moon: For if they keep not what they caught, It is entirely their own fault. They take poffeffion of the crown, And then throw all their weapons down:

*If virtue, as fome writers [retend, be that which procuces happiness, it must be ranted, that to practife deency is a moral obligation; and if virtue confifts in obe

4

dierce to a law, as the nuptial laws enjoin both parties to avoid offence, decency will still be duty, and the breach of it will incur fome degree of guilt.

Though

Though by the politicians fcheme, Whoe'er arrives at pow'r fupreme, Thofe arts by which at firft they gain it They ftill muft practise to maintain it.

What various ways our females take To pass for wits before a rake! And in the fruitless search pursue All other methods but the true.

Some try to learn polite behaviour By reading books against their Saviour : Some call it witty to reflect

On ev'ry natural defect:

Some fhew they never want explaining
To comprehend a double meaning.
But fure a tell-tale out of school
Is of all wits the greatest fool:
Whose rank imagination fills
Her heart, and from her lips diftils;
You'd think fhe utter'd from behind,
Or at her mouth was breaking wind.

Why is a handfome wife ador'd
By every coxcomb but her lord?
From yonder puppet-man inquire,
Who wifely hides his wood and wire ;

Shews

Shews Sheba's queen completely dreft,
And Solomon in royal veft;

But view them litter'd on the floor,
Or ftrung on pegs behind the door;
Punch is exactly of a piece
With Lorrain's duke,

Greece*.

and prince of

A prudent builder should forecast
How long the stuff is like to last ;
And carefully obferve the ground
To build on fome foundation found:
What house,when its materials crumble,
Muft not inevitably tumble ?

What edifice can long endure
Rais'd on a bafis unfecure?
Rash mortals, ere you take a wife,
Contrive your pile to laft for life :
Since beauty scarce endures a day,
And youth fo fwiftly glides away;
Why will you make yourself a bubble,
To build on fand with hay and stubble?

On fenfe and wit your paffion found, By decency cemented round;

* For the fame reafon many an handsome wife is neglected for an homely mistress, who

better knows her intereft, and confiders love as her trade.

Let