Poems on Several Occasions :: :: University of Virginia Library

Say, shall I try your growing Sense t' improve
With friendly Counsel of a Guardian's Love;
On moral Verse awhile your Thoughts engage,
Soft as your Sex, and cheerful as your Age;
Say, shall I try to suit with flowing Rhime
The joyous Season of your Virgin Prime?
Intreat you early to be wise and good,
To Rest and Peace, the sure and only Road?
So may your Pleasure with your Life-time stay,
Time unrepented wing its happy way,
As ev'ry Year Fifteen, and ev'ry Month were May.

Look on Embroid'ry, not a Sprig that's there
Was made by Chance, or finish'd without Care.
By Art the Flowers beneath the Needle grow,
The Stems rise verdant, and the Rose-buds blow.
Art governs Life; who Happiness attains
Must spare no Thinking, and refuse no Pains;
Nor fear from hence that Trouble should arise,
For Thought is never Trouble to the Wise.
And few were ever bless'd by Chance alone;
It fails in Thousands where it hits in One.

Of all the Charms the Female Sex desire,
That Lovers doat on, and that Friends admire,
Those most deserve your Wish that longest last,
Not like the Bloom of Beauty, quickly past;
Virtue the chief: this Men and Angels prize,
Above the finest Shape, and brightest Eyes.

By this alone untainted Joys we find,
As large, and as immortal as the Mind.
What'er your Age would reap, your Youth should sow,
For the great Seed-time of your Life is now;
When Fancy's mimick Pow'r is warm and strong,
Engraving deeply, and retaining long,
What Age can scarcely learn and hardly hold.
The Signet thus cast in the best-wrought Mould,
Imprints no Likeness when the Wax is cold.

'Tis no Disgrace a Book to understand,
And Spelling well becomes the fairest Hand.
Boldly with Knowledge stock your Soul within,
It adds no Freckle to the whitest Skin,
In Song or Dance mars not a single Grace,
And spoils no Feature in the loveliest Face.
Could You like warbling Arabella sing,
With flying Fingers wake the vocal String,
In sprightly Dance th' exactest Judges please,
At once with Fire, and Decency, and Ease;
Age stiffens Joints, and makes our Motion weak,
And turns the sweetest Quaver to a Squeak.
Virtue and Knowledge will for ever stay,
And cheer the Life-blood when the Hairs are grey.

One gen'ral Caution through your Youth be shown,
To trust nor Man nor Woman when unknown:
Let sure Experience to Esteem commend
Both the Male Suitor and the Female Friend;
Or strict Enquiry prove their Conduct true
To God and Man, else think them false to You.

Too oft unworthy Wretches Favour share,
For Bosom Friends, an Auction they declare,
And to the highest Bidder sell the Fair.
Too oft the trusted Confident prevails,
The Handmaid conqu'ring, where the Lover fails.
'Tis hard for heedless Youth the Snare to shun,
By their own Gold the Fortunes are undone.
Unwary Maids of their own Sex are fond,
And Diamond is cut with Diamond.

To pass their Time need Mortals e'er be told?
Lost by the Young, and wish'd-for by the Old.
Devotion's Practise claims the earliest part,
And Books, that clear the Head, and warm the Heart.
Besides, brisk Youth Amusements may invent,
At once genteel, ingenious, innocent.
Behold, to please the Eye if she incline,
Colours to limn, and Pencils to design:
Grave Histories Employment may supply,
Or the gay Scenes of slighter Poetry.
Nor need the Fair th' industrious Needle shun,
Or hate the Nun's-work, tho' she hates the Nun.
When Great Augustus rul'd the World and Rome,
The Cloth he wore was spun and wove at Home,
His Emp'ress ply'd the Distaff and the Loom;
And English Laws the proudest Beauty name
When single Spinster, and when married Dame.
Nay, Houshold Cares to wisest Women yield
A large, an useful, and a grateful Field;
To make the cleanly Kitchen send up Food,
Not costly vain, but plentifully good:

To bid the Cellar's Fountain never fail,
Fill'd with the well-brew'd Stores of native Ale;
To cheat the Palate with domestick Wines,
Tho' Norman William grub'd up all our Vines;
To buy, to pay, to blame, or to approve,
Within, without, below-stairs and above;
To shine in ev'ry Corner, like the Sun,
Who ne'er pollutes his Beams with looking on.
Or grant such Care no Pleasure could produce,
'Tis prudent not to slight it for its Use.
The greatest Wealth needs Care: A famous Peer
With Forty-thousand Pounds per Annum clear,
Has run beyond his Income ev'ry Year.
The Nobles daily find it to their cost,
Tho' antient Hospitality is lost.
For no Estate with Negligence can hold,
And those who count not, never keep their Gold.

One glorious Scene of Action yet behind,
The Fair that likes it is secure to find:
Cordials and Med'cines gratis to dispense,
A beauteous Instrument of Providence:
Plaisters, and Salves, and Sores to understand,
The Surgeon's Art, befits a Lady's Hand.
To friendless Pain unhop'd-for Ease to give,
And bid the Hungry eat, and Sickly live.
And thus, if we may credit Fame's Report,
The best and fairest in the Gallick Court,
An Hour sometimes in Hospitals employ,
To give the dying Wretch a Glimpse of Joy;

T' attend the Crowds that hopeless Pangs endure,
And sooth the Anguish which they cannot cure;
To clothe the Bare and give the Empty Food,
As bright as Guardian Angels and as good.
Better import this Custom out of France,
Than the last Top-knot, or the newest Dance.

I grant these Rules suit not the Fashion now,
Not thus our modern Girls to Women grow:
Their Hours far diff'rent Studies entertain,
They learn to deal the Cards, and throw the Main;
Whose Mothers at a single Stake will play
Their Fame, their Fortunes, and their Souls away.
Perhaps a little farther Miss proceeds,
Writes without Rule, and without Spelling reads:
Enters and leaves a Room with perfect Skill,
The Fan can flutter, and the Tea can fill.
But oh! if dear Mamma she can persuade
To change Quadrille at Night for Masquerade;
Where she her pretty Fancy may express
In some unnat'ral and improper Dress,
She grows a Woman strait, the Work is done,
For Hot-beds ripen faster than the Sun.
There dang'rous Converse to the virtuous Fair,
The Scum and Refuse of Mankind are there:
Yet good or bad, this Priviledge they claim,
To speak their Thoughts without Restraint of Shame:
The very vilest both of Rich and Poor,
From the lewd Peeress to the hackney Whore:
The lordly Rakehell taints the chastest Ear,
And “fly-blows all his Wit and Poison there.

Notorious Profligates, whom none admit
Of common Prudence at their Board to sit;
Scoundrels, who, if bare-fac'd they durst appear,
Would Kicks, and Blanketting, and Cudgels fear.
As if the Maid could be discreetly bred,
Who minds the Board, but never guards the Bed.

But lest too much Your Patience I offend,
Like an Old Man I'll with a Story end.
A celebrated Lady once there was,
In Charles the Martyr's and the Second's days,
Who Foreign Courts and Princes had survey'd,
When ask'd what an accomplish'd Woman made,
With memorable Answer,—thus She said:
She who her present Business learns to do,
High without Pride, and without Meanness low;
She only with compleat Desert is crown'd,
Who never at a loss for Action found,
To scour a Kettle knows, or set a Diamond.

Lady Fanshaw: Sir Richard was Embassador in Spain.