Fruition adds no new wealth, but destroys;
And while it pleaseth much, yet ftill it cloys.
Who thinks he should be happier made for that,
As reas'nably might hope he might grow fat
By eating to a furfeit: this once past,
What relishes? ev'n kiffes lofe their taste.
Bleffings may be repeated, while they cloy;
But shall we starve, 'caufe furfeitings destroy?
And if fruition did the taste impair
Of kiffes, why should yonder happy Pair,
Whose joys juft HYMEN warrants all the night,
Confume the day too in this lefs delight?
Urge not 'tis neceffary; alas! we know
The homelieft thing that mankind does, is fo.
The world is of a large extent we fee,
And must be peopled, children there must be.
So must bread too: but fince there are enough
Born to that drudgery, what need we plough?
I need not plough, fince what the ftooping Hine
Gets of my pregnant land, must all be mine:
But in this nobler tillage 'tis not fo;
For, when ANCHISES did fair VENUS know,
What int'reft had poor VULCAN in the boy,
Famous ÆNEAS, or the present joy?
Women enjoy'd, whate'er before they've been,
Are like Romances read, or fcenes once feen:
Fruition dulls, or Spoils the Play, much more
Than if one read, or knew, the plot before.
PRO.
Plays, and Romances read, and feen, do fall
In our opinions: yet, not seen at all,
Whom would they please? To an heroic tale
Would you not liften, left it should grow ftale?
CON.
'Tis expectation makes a blessing dear;
Heav'n were not heav'n, if we knew what it were.
If 'twere not heav'n, if we knew what it were, "Twould not be heav'n to those that now are there.
And as in profpects we are there pleas'd moft,
Where fomething keeps the eye from being loft,
And leaves us room to guefs: fo here, reftraint
Holds up delight, that with excefs would faint.
PRO.
Restraint preserves the pleasure we have got,
But he ne'er has it, that enjoys it not.
In goodly prospects, who contracts the space,
Or takes not all the bounty of the place?
We wish remov'd what standeth in our light,
And nature blame for limiting our fight:
Where you stand wifely winking, that the view
Of the fair profpect may be. always new.
They, who know all the wealth they have, are poor;
He's only rich that cannot tell his ftore.
Not he, that knows the wealth he has, is poor;
But he, that dares not touch, nor use his ftore.
To a Friend, of the different Success of their Loves.
HRICE happy Pair! of whom we cannot know
Which first began to love, or loves most now:
Fair course of paffion! where two lovers start,
And run together, heart ftill yok'd with heart:
Successful youth! whom Love has taught the way
To be victorious, in the first effay.
Sure love's an art best practised at first,
And where th' experienced still profper worft!
I, with a diff'rent fate, perfu'd in vain
The haughty CE LIA; 'till my just disdain
Of her neglect, above that paffion born,
Did pride to pride oppose, and fcorn to scorn.
Now fhe relents; but all too late, to move
A heart directed to a nobler love:
The scales are turn'd, her kindness weighs no more
Now, than my vows, and fervice, did before.
So, in fome well-wrought hangings, you may fee
How HECTOR leads, and how the GRECIANS flee:
Here, the fierce MARS his courage so inspires,
That with bold hand the ARGIVE fleet he fires:
But there, from heav'n the blue-ey'd virgin falls,
And frighted TROY retires within her walls:
They that are foremost in that bloody race,
Turn head anon, and give the conqu❜rors chafe.
So like the chances are of love, and war,
That they alone in this diftinguish'd are;
In love, the victors from the vanquish'd fly;
They fly that wound, and they perfue that die.
An APOLOGY for having Lov'd before.
THEY that never had the use
Of the grape's furprizing juice,
To the firft delicious cup
All their reafon render up:
Neither do, nor care to know,
Whether it be best or no.
So, they that are to love inclin'd,
Sway'd by chance, nor choice, or art,
To the first that's fair, or kind,
Make a prefent of their heart:
'Tis not fhe that first we love,
To man, that was in th' ev'ning made,
Stars gave the first delight;
Admiring, in the gloomy fhade,
Those little drops of light.
Then, at AURORA, whose fair hand
Remov'd them from the skies,
He gazing tow'rd the east did stand,
She entertain'd his eyes.
But when the bright fun did appear,
All thofe he 'gan despise;
His wonder was determin'd there,
And could no higher rise:
He neither might, nor wifh'd to know
A more refulgent light:
For that (as mine your beauties now)
Imploy'd his utmost fight.
AIRE ST piece of well-form'd earth!
Urge not thus your haughty birth:
The pow'r, which you have o'er us, lyes
Not in your race, but in your eyes.
Confines you to a narrow choice.
Should you no honey vow to tafte,
But what the mafter-bees have plac'd
In compafs of their cells, how fmall
A portion to your fhare would fall?
Nor all appear among those few,
Worthy the stock from whence they grew:
The fap, which at the root is bred
In trees, thro' all the boughs is fpread;
But virtues, which in parents shine,
Make not like progrefs thro' the line.
'Tis not from whom, but where, we live :
The place does oft those graces give.
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