University of Virginia Library

TO THE SAME,

WITH THE FEMALE FABLES.

Fit gift for widow, maid, and wife,
Accept these rules of female life,
Where Fiction lends new charms to Truth,
Combining both, as friends to youth;
The duty of your sex behold,
By birds, and beasts, and flow'rets told,
Here insects preach like sound divines,
Each tree a tree of knowledge shines.
A lesson for the coxcomb's heart,
The flirting sparrow shall impart;
The tender turtle and the bee,
Shall murmur love and industry;
In the lamb's bleat you'll precepts find
To shun the wolves of human kind;
The generous horse will nobly show,
What with your flatterers you should do;
The glow worms of your sex how vain,
You learn from Philomela's strain;
The serious owl, and simple goose,
Harangue in verse for female use;
And the young lion bids you 'scape
All friendship with the human ape,
And every leaf and every bower
Unfolds a salutary power,
While all with one loud voice declare,
What women should be—what you are.