From lines drawn true our eye may trace,
A foot, a knee, a hand, a face;
May justly own the picture wrought
Exact to rule, exempt from fault;
Yet, if the colouring be not there,
The Titian stroke, the Guido air,
To nicest judgment show the piece,
At best 'twill only not displease;
It would not gain on Jersey's eye;
Bradford would frown, and set it by.
Thus, in the picture of our mind,
The action may be well design'd,
Guided by law, and bound by duty,
Yet want this je ne sçai quoi of beauty :
And though its error may be such

As Knags and Burgess cannot hit; It yet may feel the nicer touch

Of Wycherly's or Congreve's wit.

What is this talk? (replies a friend)
And where will this dry moral end?
The truth of what you here lay down
By some example should be shown.'-

With all my heart-for once; read on.'
An honest, but a simple pair,

(And twenty other I forbear)
May serve to make this thesis clear.
A doctor of great skill and fame,
Paulo Purganti was his name,
Had a good, comely, virtuous wife,
No woman led a better life;

She to intrigues was even hard-hearted;
She chuckled when a bawd was carted;

1 Knags was lecturer of St. Giles in the Fields; Burgess was a dissenter.

And thought the nation ne'er would thrive,
Till all the whores were burn'd alive.

On married men that dared be bad,
She thought no mercy should be had;
They should be hang'd, or starved, or flay'd,
Or served like Romish priests in Swede.-
In short, all lewdness she defied;
And stiff was her parochial pride.

Yet in an honest way the dame
Was a great lover of that same;
And could from Scripture take her cue,
That husbands should give wives their due.
Her prudence did so justly steer
Between the gay and the severe,
That if in some regards she chose
To curb poor Paulo in too close,
In others she relax'd again,
And govern'd with a looser rein.

Thus, though she strictly did confine
The Doctor from excess of wine,
With oysters, eggs, and vermicelli,
She let him almost burst his belly:
Thus drying coffee was denied,
But chocolate that loss supplied;
And for tobacco (who could bear it?)
Filthy concomitant of claret,
(Blest revolution!) one might see
Eringo roots and Bohea tea.

She often set the Doctor's band,

And stroked his beard, and squeezed his hand;
Kindly complain'd, that afternoon

He went to pore on books too soon;
She held it wholesomer, by much,

To rest a little on the couch.-

About his waist in bed a-nights

She clung so close-for fear of sprites.

The Doctor understood the call,
But had not always wherewithal.
The lion's skin, too short, you know,
(As Plutarch's morals finely show)
Was lengthen'd by the fox's tail,
And art supplies where strength may fail.
Unwilling, then, in arms to meet

The enemy he could not beat;
He strove to lengthen the campaign,
And save his forces by chicane.
Fabius, the Roman chief, who thus
By fair retreat grew Maximus,
Shows us, that all the warrior can do
With force inferior, is cunctando.

One day, then, as the foe drew near,
With love, and joy, and life, and dear;
Our Don, who knew this tittle-tattle
Did, sure as trumpet, call to battle;
Thought it extremely à propos,
To ward against the coming blow:

To ward; but how? Ay, there's the question,
Fierce the assault, unarm'd the bastion.
The Doctor feign'd a strange surprise;
He felt her pulse, he view'd her eyes:
That beat too fast, these roll'd too quick;
She was, he said, or would be sick!
He judged it absolutely good

That she should purge and cleanse her blood.
Spaw waters for that end were got:

If they pass'd easily or not

What matters it? the lady's fever

Continued violent as ever.

mind)

For a distemper of this kind,
(Blackmore and Hans2 are of my
If once it youthful blood infects,
And chiefly of the female sex,
Is scarce removed by pill or potion,
Whate'er might be our Doctor's notion.

One luckless night, then, as in bed
The Doctor and the dame were laid,
Again this cruel fever came,

High pulse, short breath, and blood in flame.
What measures shall poor Paulo keep
With madam in this piteous taking?
She, like Macbeth, has murder'd sleep,
And won't allow him rest, though waking.
Sad state of matters! when we dare
Nor ask for peace, nor offer war;
Nor Livy nor Comines have shown
What in this juncture may be done.
Grotius might own that Paulo's case is
Harder than any, which he places
Amongst his Belli and his Pacis.

He strove, alas! but strove in vain,

By dint of logic, to maintain

That all the sex was born to grieve,
Down to her ladyship from Eve.

He ranged his tropes, and preach'd up patience;
Back'd his opinion with quotations,

Divines and moralists, and run ye on

Quite through from Seneca to Bunyan 3.

As much in vain he bid her try

To fold her arms, to close her

eye,

2 Sir Richard Blackmore, and Sir Edward Hans, physicians.

3 Author of the Pilgrim's Progress.

Telling her rest would do her good,
If any thing in nature could;

So held the Greeks, quite down from Galen,
Masters and princes of the calling :

So all our modern friends maintain
(Though no great Greeks) in Warwick-lane.
Reduce, my Muse, the wandering song;
A Tale should never be too long.

The more he talk'd, the more she burn'd, And sigh'd, and toss'd, and groan'd, and turn'd: At last, I wish, (said she) my dear'(And whisper'd something in his ear.) You wish! wish on (the Doctor cries) Lord! when will womankind be wise? What, in your waters, are you mad? Why, poison is not half so bad. I'll do it--but I give you warning, You'll die before to-morrow morning.'"Tis kind, my dear, what you advise, (The lady with a sigh replies) But life, you know, at best is pain, And death is what we should disdain : So do it, therefore, and adieu,

For I will die for love of

you.

Let wanton wives by death be scared;
But, to my comfort, I'm prepared.'

PROTOGENES AND APELLES.

WHEN poets wrote and painters drew,
As Nature pointed out the view;
Ere Gothic forms were known in Greece,
To spoil the well-proportion'd piece;