Experience, this; by Man's oppreffion curst,
They seek the second not to lose the first.

Men, fome to Bus'nefs, fome to Pleasure take; But ev'ry Woman is at heart a Rake:

Men, fome to Quiet, some to public Strife;

But ev'ry Lady would be Queen for life.

216

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 fubject 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 fcience to the Fair as Great! Beauties, like Tyrants, old and friendless

Yet hate repose, and dread to be alone,

NOTES.

grown,

VER. 213. Experience this, &c.] The ironical apology continued: That the Second is, as it were, forced upon them by the tyranny and oppreffion of man, in order to fecure the first. 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 business :” which being the peculiar characteristic of a Rake, we must needs think that he includes (in his ufe of the word here) no more of the Rake's ill qualities than are implied in this definition, of one who makes pleasure his business.

VER. 219. What are the Aims and the Fate of this Sex? -I. As to Power. P.

Worn out in public, weary ev'ry eye,

Nor leave one figh behind them when they die.
Pleasures the fex, 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 loft:

230

At laft, to follies Youth could scarce defend, 235

It

grows their Age's prudence to pretend;
Afham'd to own they gave delight before,
Reduce to feign it, when they give no more:
As Hags hold Sabbaths, lefs for joy than fpight,
So these their merry, miferable Night;
Still round and round the Ghofts of Beauty glide,
And haunt the places where their Honour dy'd.

240

See how the World its Veterans rewards!
A Youth of Frolicks, an old Age of Cards ;
Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,
Young without Lovers, old without a Friend;
A Fop their Paffion, but their Prize a Sot,
Alive, ridiculous, and dead, forgot!

245

Ah! Friend! to dazzle. let the Vain design; To raise the thought, and touch the Heart be

thine!

NOTES.

VER. 231.-II. As to Pleasure. P.

VER. 249. Advice for their true Intereft. P.

250

That Charm fhall grow, while what fatigues the
Ring,

Flaunts and goes down, an unregarded thing:
So when the Sun's broad beam has tir'd the fight,
All mild afcends the Moon's more sober light,
Serene in Virgin Modesty fhe fhines,
And unobferv'd the glaring Orb declines.

Oh! bleft with Temper, whofe unclouded
Can make to-morrow chearful as to-day:
She, who can love a Sifter's charms, or hear
Sighs for a Daughter with unwounded

NOTES.

255

ray

ear; 260

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 raising the imagery of the fimilitude in the lines preceding, by the use of metaphors taken from the subject 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 difappearance of it,

Oh! bleft with Temper, whofe 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, ere fhe change, the Cynthia of this minute.

Rufa, whofe eye quick-glancing o'er the Park,

Attracts each light gay Meteor of a Spark, &c.

She who ne'er anfwers till a Husband cools,
Or, if the rules him, never fhews the rules;
Charms by accepting, by fubmitting fways,
Yet has her humour moft, when the obeys;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they will; 265
Difdains all lofs of Tickets, or Codille;

Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all,
And Mistress of herself, tho' China fall.

270

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill, Woman's at beft a Contradiction still. Heav'n, when it ftrives to polifh all it çan Its laft beft work, but forms a fofter Man Picks from each fex, to make the Fav'rite bleft, Your love of Pleasure, our defire 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;

NOTES.

275

VER, 269. The picture of an estimable Woman, with the beft kind of contrarieties, created out of the poet's imagination; who therefore feigned thofe circumstances of a Husband, a Daughter, and love for a Sifter, to prevent her being mistaken for any of his acquaintance. And having thus made his Woman, he did, as the ancient poets were wont, when they had made their Mufe, invoke, and addrefs his poem to, her,

Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft,
Toasts live a scorn, and Queens may die a jeft.
This Phœbus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes firft open'd on the sphere;
Ascendant Phœbus watch'd that hour with care,
Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r; 286
And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your fex a Tyrant o'er itself.
The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines,
And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines,

290

Kept Drofs for Ducheffes, the world shall know it, To you gave Senfe, Good-humour, and a Poet.

NOTES.

VER. 285. &c. Afcendant Phœbus 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 Epistle with a fine Moral, that deferves the ferious 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 203; and that even the beft are rather fecured by a good natural than by the prudence and providence of parents; which obfervation 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 fondness: 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 these Epiftles together is, that the two rareft things in all Nature are a DISINTERESTED MAN, and a REASONABLE WOMAN.