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Those only fix'd they first or last obey,

The love of pleasure and the love of sway.

That Nature gives; and where the lesson taught
Is but to please, can pleasure seem a fault?
Experience this: by man's oppression curst,
They seek the second not to lose the first.

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Men some to bus'ness some to pleasure take, 215
But ev'ry Woman is at heart a rake:
Men some to quiet some 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.
In youth they conquer with so 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.

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But Wisdom's triumph is well tim❜d retreat,

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As hard a science to the fair as great!

Beauties, like tyrants, old and friendless grown,
Yet hate repose and dread to be alone;

Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye,

Nor leave one sigh behind them when they die. 230
Pleasures the sex as children birds pursue,

Still out of reach, yet never out of view;
Sure if they catch to spoil the toy at most,

To covet flying, and regret when lost :

At last to follies youth could scarce defend,
It grows their age's prudence to pretend;
Asham'd to own they gave delight before,
Reduc'd to feign it when they give no more.
As hags hold sabbaths less for joy than spight,
So these their merry miserable night;
Still round and round the ghosts of Beauty glide,
And haunt the places where their honour dy’d.

See how the World its veterans rewards!
A youth of frolics, an old age of cards;
Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,

Young without lovers, old without a friend;

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A fop their passion, but their prize a sot,
Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot!

Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the vain design;

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To raise the thought and touch the heart be thine!

That charm shall grow, while what fatigues the ring
Flaunts and goes down an unregarded thing.

So when the sun's broad beam has tir'd the sight,
All mild ascends the moon's more sober light;
Serene in virgin modesty she shines,

And unobserv'd the glaring orb declines.

Oh! bless'd with temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day;
She who can lose a sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a daughter with unwounded ear;

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She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or if she rules him never shows she rules;
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways,
Yet has her humour most when she obeys;
Let fops or fortune fly which way they will,
Disdains all loss of tickets or codille;
Spleen, vapours, or small-pox, above them all,
And mistress of herself tho' china fall.

And yet believe me, good as well as ill,
Woman's at best a contradiction still.
Heav'n, when it strives to polish all it can
Its last best work, but forms a softer man:
Picks from each sex to make the fav'rite blest,
Your love of pleasure, our desire of rest;
Blends in exception to all gen'ral rules,

Your taste of follies with our scorn of fools;
Reserve with frankness, art with truth ally'd,
Courage with softness, modesty with pride;
Fix'd principles, with fancy ever new,
Shakes all together, and produces-you.

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Be this a Woman's fame; with this unblest Toasts live a scorn, and queens may die a jest. This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year) When those blue eyes first open'd on the sphere; Ascendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, 285 Averted half your parent's simple pray❜r,

And gave you beauty, but deny'd the pelf
That buys your sex a tyrant o'er itself.
The gen'rous god who wit and gold refines,
And ripens spirits as he ripens mines,

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Kept dross for duchesses; the world shall know it,

To you gave sense, good humour, and a poet.

TO ALLEN LORD BATHURST.

Of the use of Riches.

THE ARGUMENT.

THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, avarice or profusion, v. 1, &c. The point discussed, whether the invention of money has been more commodious or pernicious to mankind, v. 21 to 77. That Riches, either to the avaricious or the prodigal, cannot afford happiness, scarcely necessaries, v. 89 to 160. That avarice is an absolute frenzy, without an end or purpose, v. 113, &c. 152. Conjectures about the motives of avaricious men, v. 121 to 153. That the conduct of men, with respect to Riches, can only be accounted for by the order of Providence, which works the general good out of extremes, and brings all to its great end by perpetual revolutions, v. 161 to 178. How a miser acts upon principles which appear to him reasonable, v. 179. How a prodigal does the same, v. 199. dium and true use of Riches, v. 219.

The due me

The Man of

Ross, v. 250. The fate of the profuse and the covetous, in two examples; both miserable in life and in death, v. 300, &c. The story of Sir Balaam, v. 339, to the end.

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