Some secret truths, from learned pride conceal'd, 40 45 And once inclosed in woman's beauteous mould; 50 Think not, when woman's transient breath is fled, Succeeding vanities she still regards, And though she plays no more, o'erlooks the cards. Her joy in gilden chariots, when alive,1 55 For when the fair in all their pride expire, 60 65 "Know further yet: whoever fair and chaste 70 Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos."-Virg. Æn. vi. When kind occasion prompts their warm desires, 75 "Some nymphs there are, too conscious of their face, For life predestined to the gnome's embrace. 80 These swell their prospects and exalt their pride, Then gay ideas crowd the vacant brain, While peers, and dukes, and all their sweeping train, 85 6 And in soft sounds, Your Grace' salutes their ear. Instruct the eyes of young coquettes to roll, "Oft, when the world imagine women stray, The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way, What tender maid but must a victim fall 95 To one man's treat, but for another's ball? When Florio speaks, what virgin could withstand, If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand? With varying vanities, from ev'ry part, They shift the moving toy-shop of their heart; 100 Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots sword-knots strive, Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive. Oh, blind to truth! the sylphs contrive it all. "Of these am I, who thy protection claim, 105 A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name. I saw, alas! some dread event impend, Ere to the main this morning sun descend; 110 But heaven reveals not what, or how, or where : 5 The language of the Platonists, the writers of the intelligible world of spirits, &c. This to disclose is all thy guardian can: Beware of all, but most beware of man!" He said; when Shock, who thought she slept too long, 115 Leap'd up, and waked his mistress with his tongue. 'Twas then, Belinda, if report say true, Thy eyes first open'd on a billet-doux ; Wounds, charms, and ardours, were no sooner read, And now, unveil'd, the toilet stands display'd, Each silver vase in mystic order laid. First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores, To that she bends, to that her eye she rears; 120 125 130 And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. The tortoise here and elephant unite, 135 Transform'd to combs, the speckled and the white.6 Here files of pins extend their shining rows, Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux. Now awful beauty puts on all its arms; 140 145 6 [This passage was evidently suggested, as Warton remarks, by one of Addison's Spectators (No. 69): "The single dress of a woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. The scarf is sent from the torrid zone, and the tippet from beneath the pole. The brocade petticoat rises out of the mines of Peru, and the diamond necklace out of the bowels of Indostan."] 7 Ancient traditions of the rabbis relate, that several of the fallen angels Some fold the sleeve, while others plait the gown; became amorous of women, and particularize some; amongst the rest, Asael, who lay with Naamah, the wife of Noah, or of Ham; and who, continuing impenitent, still presides over the women's toilets. Bereshi Rabbi in Genes. vi. 2. |