Experience, this; by Man's oppreffion curst, Men, fome to Bus'nefs, fome to Pleasure take; But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake: 216 Men, fome to Quiet, fome to public Strife; But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life. Yet mark the fate of a whole Sex of Queens! Pow'r all their end, but Beauty all the means: 220 In Youth they conquer, with fo wild a rage, As leaves them scarce a subject in their Age: For foreign glory, foreign joy, they roam ; No thought of peace or happiness at home. But Wisdom's triumph is well-tim'd Retreat, 225 As hard a science to the Fair as Great! Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless grown, Yet hate repofe, and dread to be alone, NOTES. tinued: That the Second is, as it were, forced upon them by the tyranny and oppreffion of man, in order to fecure the fift VER. 216. But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake:] "Some "men (fays the Poet) take to "bufinefs, fome to pleasure, "but every woman would willingly make pleasure her bu "finefs:" which being the peculiar characteristic of a Rake, we muft needs think that he includes (in his use of the word here) to more of the Rake's ill qualities than are implied in this definition, of one who makes pleasure his business. VER. 2.19. What are the Aims and the Fate of this Sex? -I. As to Power. P. Ο Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye, Nor leave one figh behind them when they die. 230 Pleasures the fex, as children Birds, purfue, ; Still out of reach, yet never out of view 240 At last, to follies Youth could scarce defend, 235 Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain defign; To raife the Thought, and touch the Heart be thine! 250 245 VER. 249. Advice for their true Intereft. P. That Charm shall grow, while what fatigues the Ring, 255 Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing: NOTES. VER. 253. So when the Sun's broad beam &c.] One of the great beauties obfervable in the poet's management of his Similitudes, is the ceremonious preparation he makes for them, in gradually raifing the imagery of the fimilitude in the lines preceding, by the use of metaphors taken from the fubject of it : while what fatigues the ring, Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing. And the civil difmiffion he gives them by the continuance of the fame metaphor, in the lines following, whereby the traces of the imagery gradually decay, | and give place to others, and the reader is never offended with the fudden or abrupt difappearence of it, Oh! bleft with Temper, whose unclouded ray &c. Another inftance of the fame kind we have in this epiftle, in the following lines, Chufe a firm cloud before it fall, and in it Catch, e'er fhe change, the Cynthia of this minute. She, who ne'er answers till a Husband cools, Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all, And yet, believe me, good as well as ill, Woman's at beft a Contradiction ftill. Heav'n, when it ftrives to polish all it can NOTES. 270 VER. 269. The Picture of an eftimable Woman, with the best kind of contrarieties, created out of the poet's imagination; who therefore feigned thofe circumftances of a Hufband, a Daughter, and love for a Sifter, to prevent her being mistaken for any of his { Fix'd Principles, with Fancy ever new ; Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft, 290 NOTES. | VER. 285. &c. Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r; And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf] The poet concludes his Epiftle with a fine Moral, that deferves the serious attention of the public: It is this, that all the extravagances of thefe vicious Characters here defcribed, are much inflamed by a wrong Education, hinted at in y 203; and that even the best are rather fecured by a good natural than by the prudence and providence of parents; which ob 280 fervation is conveyed under the fublime claffical machinery of Phoebus in the afcendant, watching the natal hour of his favourite, and averting the ill effects of her parents mistaken fondnefs: For Phoebus, as the god of Wit, confers Genius; and, as one of the aftronomical influences, defeats the adventitious byas of education. In conclufion, the great Moral from both thefe Epiftles together is, that the two rarest things in all Nature are a DISINTERESTED MAN, and a REASONABLE WOMAN. |