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The works of Allan Ramsay

edited by Burns Martin ... and John W. Oliver [... and Alexander M. Kinghorn ... and Alexander Law]

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Vertue and Wit.
  
  
  
  
  
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Vertue and Wit.

The Preservatives of Love and Beauty.

[_]

To the Tune of Gillikranky.

To Mrs. K. H.
[HE.]
Confess thy Love, fair blushing Maid;
For since thine Eye's consenting,
Thy safter Thoughts are a' betray'd,
And Nasays no worth tenting.
Why aims thou to oppose thy Mind,
With Words thy Wish denying?
Since Nature made thee to be kind,
Reason allows complying.
Nature and Reason's joint Consent
Make Love a sacred Blessing;
Then happily that Time is spent,
That's war'd on kind caressing.
Come then, my Katie, to my Arms,
I'll be nae mair a Rover,
But find out Heaven in a' thy Charms,
And prove a faithful Lover.


284

SHE.
What you design by Nature's Law,
Is fleeting Inclination;
That Willy-Wisp bewilds us a',
By its Infatuation.
When that gaes out, Caresses tire,
And Love's nae mair in season;
Syne weakly we blaw up the Fire,
With all our boasted Reason.

HE.
The Beauties of inferior Cast
May start this just Reflection;
But Charms like thine maun always last,
Where Wit has the Protection.
Vertue and Wit, like April Rays,
Make Beauty rise the sweeter:
The langer then on thee I gaze,
My Love will grow compleater.