Basia Joannis Secundi Nicolai Hagensis or The Kisses of Joannes Secundus Nicolaius of the Hague. In Latin and English Verse. With the Life of Secundus, and a Critic upon his Basia. Adorn'd with a Cut of the Author, and another of his Mistress Julia, engrav'd by the famous Bernard Picart the Roman [by George Ogle] |
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| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. | KISS VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
| XIII. |
| XIV. |
| XV. |
| XVI. |
| XVII. |
| XVIII. |
| XIX. |
| XX. |
 | Basia Joannis Secundi Nicolai Hagensis |  |
17
KISS VI.
Two Thousand Kisses, (in Exchange of Hearts)As soft and Sweet as Mutual-love imparts;
Of Mutual-faith, the Terms, we jointly make.
I give a Thousand, and a Thousand take.
Fairly you paid the Number, gracious Maid!
Were Love, by any Number, fairly paid!
But Love, alas, to Number never yields.
The Blades, Who numbers, of well-water'd Fields!
Who, Queen of Plenty, that extolls thy Praise,
Intreats Thee, Ceres, number'd Ears to raise?
Who, Bacchus, that thy pleasing Pow'r adores,
An Hundred Clusters servilely implores?
Who, Pales, that thy bounteous Aid demands,
Lifts for a Thousand Bees vain-suppliant Hands?
When Jove descends in Floods of Genial Rain,
Who tells the Drops that cheer the thirsty Plains?
Or when the God assumes severer Arms;
With driving Winds the troubled Air alarms;
And Icy Bolts, o'er Earth, o'er Ocean pours;
Computes the Fragments of the rat'ling Show'rs?
All Things that fall to Mortals from the Skies,
Ætherial Gifts! to Infinite arise.
Whether Auspicious or Averse They prove;
A Majesty that suits the House of Jove!
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Speaks Thee a Goddess of Celestial Race,
Speaks Thee ev'n Her in Beauty to excell,
Who roams ore the vast Deeps with vagrant Shell.)
Why so exact, thy Attributes Divine,
Kisses to bounded Numbers to confine?
Yet, Cruel, number not my cease-less Sighs;
Nor Tears for-ever trickling from my Eyes?
Number, at-will, for ev'ry Tear a Kiss;
But number not, without the Pain, the Bliss.
Or give, to ease my Doubts, and lay my Fears,
Kisses un-number'd for un-number'd Tears.
| Basia Joannis Secundi Nicolai Hagensis | |