Your random life to no just rules reduced,
'Twas chance the virtue or the vice produced.
The casual goodness Impulse has to boast,
Like morning dews, or transient showers, is lost;
While heav'n-taught virtue pours her constant tide,
Like streams by living fountains still supplied.

Be wisdom still, though late, your earnest care,
Nor waste the precious hours in vain despair :
Associate with the good, attend the sage,
And meekly listen to experienced age.
What, if acquirements you have fail'd to gain,
Such as the wise may want, the bad attain;
Yet still Religion's sacred treasures lie
Inviting, open, plain to ev'ry eye;
For ev'ry age, for ev'ry genius fit,
Nor limited to science nor to wit;

Not bound by taste, to genius not confin'd,
But all may learn the truths for all design'd.
Though low the talents, and th' acquirements small,
The gift of grace divine is free to all;

She calls, solicits, courts you to be blest,
And points to mansions of eternal rest.

And when, advanced in years, matur'd in sense, Think not with farther care you may dispense; 'Tis fatal to the int'rests of the soul

To stop the race before we've reach'd the goal;
For nought our higher progress can preclude
So much as thinking we're already good.
The human heart ne'er knows a state of rest;
Bad leads to worse, and better tends to best.
We either gain or lose, we sink or rise,
Nor rests our struggling nature till she dies:
Then place the standard of perfection high;
Pursue and grasp it, e'en beyond the sky.

Lau. Oh, that important Time could back return
Those mis-spent hours whose loss I deeply mourn!
Accept, just Heav'n, my penitence sincere,
My heartfelt anguish, and ny fervent pray'r!

Ura. I pity Pastorella's hapless fate,
By nature gentle, generous. mild, and great:
One false propension all her powers confin'd,
And chain'd her finer faculties of mind;
Yet ev'ry virtue might have flourish'd there
With early culture and maternal care.

If good we plant not, vice will fill the place,
And rankest weeds the richest soils deface.
Learn how ungovern'd thoughts the mind pervert,
And to disease all nourishment convert.

Ah! happy she, whose wisdom learns to find
A healthful fancy, and a well-train'd mind!
A sick man's wildest dreams less wild are found
Than the day-visions of a mind unsound.
Disorder'd phantasies indulg'd too much,
Like harpies, always taint whate'er they touch.
Fly soothing solitude! fly vain desire!

Fly such soft verse as fans the dangerous fire!
Seek action; 'tis the scene which virtue loves:
The vig'rous sun not only shines, but moves.
From sickly thoughts with quick abhorrence start,
And rule the fancy if you'd rule the heart:
By active goodness, by laborious schemes,
Subdue wild visions and delusive dreams,
No earthly good a Christian's views should bound,
For ever rising should his aims be found.
Leave that fictitious good your fancy feigns
For scenes where real bliss eternal reigns:
Look to that region of immortal joys,
Where fear disturbs not, nor possession cloys;
Beyond what fancy forms of rosy bow'rs,
Or blooming chaplets of unfading flow'rs;
Fairer than e'er imagination drew,
Or poet's warmest visions ever knew.
Press eager onward to those blissful plains
Where life eternal, joy perpetual reigns.

Pas. I mourn the errors of my thoughtless youth And long, with thee, to tread the paths of truth.

Ura. Learning is all the bright Cleora's aim; She seeks the loftiest pinnacle of fame; On interdicted ground presumes to stand, And grasps at science with a vent'rous hand: The privilege of man she dares invade, And tears the chaplet from his laurel'd head. Why found her merit on a foreign claim? Why lose a substance, to acquire a name? Let the proud sex possess their vaunted pow'rs; Be other triumphs, other glories, ours! The gentler charms which wait on female life, Which grace the daughter and adorn the wife, Be these our boast; yet these may well admit Of various knowledge, and of blameless wit: Of sense, resulting from a nurtur'd mind, Of polish'd converse, and of taste refin'd: Of that quick intuition of the best,

Which feels the graceful, and rejects the rest:
Which finds the right by shorter ways than rules:
An art which nature teaches-not the schools,
Thus conq'ring Sévigné the heart obtains,
While Dacier only admiration gains.

Know, fair aspirer, could you even hope
To speak like Stonhouse, or to write like Pope,
To all the wonders of the poet's lyre,
Join all that taste can add, or wit inspire,
With ev'ry various pow'r of learning fraught,
The flow of style, and the sublime of thought;
Yet, if the milder graces of the mind,
Graces peculiar to the sex design'd,
Good-nature, patience, sweetness void of art;
If these embellish'd not your virgin heart,
You might be dazzling, but not truly bright;
Might glare, but not emit a useful light;
A meteor, not a star, you would appear;
For woman shines but in her proper sphere.
Accomplishments by heav'n were sure design'd
Less to adorn than to amend the mind;

Each should contribute to this gen'ral end,
And all to virtue, as their centre, tend.
Th' acquirements which our best esteem invite,
Should not project, but soften, mix, unite:
In glaring light not strongly be display'd,
But sweetly lost, and melted into shade.

Cleo. Confus'd with shame, to thy reproofs I bend,
Thou best adviser, and thou truest friend!
From thee I'll learn to judge and act aright,
Humility with knowledge to unite:

The finish'd character must both combine,
The perfect woman must in either shine.

Ur. Florella shines adorn'd with every grace,
Her heart all virtue, as all charms her face:
Above the wretched, and below the great,
Kind heav'n has fix'd her in a middle state;
The demon fashion never warp'd her soul,
Her passions move at piety's control;
Her eyes the movements of her heart declare,
For what she dares to be, she dares appear;
Unlectur❜d in dissimulation's school,
To smile by precept, and to blush by rule:
Her thoughts ingenuous, ever open lie,
Nor shrink from close inspection's keenest eye;
No dark disguise about her heart is thrown;
'Tis virtue's interest fully to be known;
Her nat❜ral sweetness ev'ry heart obtains;
What art and affectation miss, she gains.
She smooths the path of my declining years,
Augments my comforts, and divides my cares.
Pas. O sacred friendship! O exalted state!
The choicest bounty of indulgent fate!

Ur. Let woman then her real good discern,
And her true interests of Urania learn:
As some fair violet, loveliest of the glade,
Sheds its mild fragrance on the lonely shade,
Withdraws its modest head from public sight,
Nor courts the sun, nor seeks the glare of light;

Should some rude hand profanely dare intrude,
And bear its beauties from its native wood,
Exposed abroad its languid colours fly,
Its form decays, and all its odours die;
So woman, born to dignify retreat,
Unknown to flourish, and unseen be great,
To give domestic life its sweetest charm,
With softness polish, and with virtue warm,
Fearful of fame, unwilling to be known,
Should seek but Heaven's applauses, and her own;
Hers be the task to seek the lonely cell
Where modest want and silent anguish dwell;
Raise the weak head, sustain the feeble knees,
Cheer the cold heart, and chase the dire disease.
The splendid deeds, which only seek a name,
Are paid their just reward in present fame;
But know, the awful, all-disclosing day,
The long arrear of secret worth shall pay ;
Applauding saints shall hear with fond regard,
And He, who witness'd here, shall there reward.
Eu. With added grace she pleads religion's cause,
Who from her life her virtuous lesson draws.

Ur. In vain, ye fair, from place to place you roam,
For that true peace which must be found at home:
Nor change of fortune, nor of scene can give
The bliss you seek, which in the soul must live.
Then look no more abroad; in your own breast
Seek the true seat of happiness and rest.
Nor small, my friends! the vigilance I ask;
Watch well yourselves, this is the Christian's task
The cherish'd sin by each must be assail'd,
New efforts added, where the past have fail'd:
The darling error check'd, the will subdued,
The heart by penitence and prayer renew'd.
Nor hope for perfect happiness below;
Celestial plants on earth reluctant grow:
He who our frail mortality did bear,

Though free from sin, was not exempt from care.