Firmness yclept n heroes, kings, and seamen, That is, when they succeed; but greatly blamed, As obstinacy, both in men and women, Whene'er their triumph pales, or star is tamed: And 'twill perplex the casuist in morality, To fix the due bounds of this dangerous quality. xc. Had Buonaparte won at Waterloo, It had been firmness; now 'tis pertinacity: Must the event decide between the two? I leave it to your people of sagacity To draw the line between the false and true, If such can e'er be drawn by man's capacity: My business is with Lady Adeline, Who in her way, too, was a heroine. XCI. She knew not her own heart: then how should I? (I will not say it was a false or true one) In him, because she thought he was in dangerHer husband's friend, her own, young, and a stranger. XCII. She was, or thought she was, his friend-and this Without the farce of friendship, or romance Of Platonism, which leads so oft amiss [France Ladies who have studied friendship but in Or Germany, where people purely kiss. To thus much Adeline would not advance; But of such friendship as man's may to man be, She was as capable as woman can be. XCIII. No doubt the secret influence of the sex And tune the concord to a finer mood. XCIV. Love bears within its breast the very germ XCV. Alas! by all experience, seldom yet (I merely quote what I have heard from many) Had lovers not some reason to regret The passion which made Solomon a zany. X. Fair Adeline, the more ingenuous ΧΙ. Some parts of Juan's history, which Rumour, That live-gazette, had scatter'd, to disfigure, She had heard ; but women hear with more good humour Such aberrations, than we men of rigour : Besides, his conduct since in England grew more Strict, and his mind assumed a manlier vigour; Because he had, like Alcibiades, The art of living in all climes with ease. XII. His manner was perhaps the more seductive, XIII. They are wrong-that's not the way to set about it; As, if they told the truth, could well be shown. But, right or wrong, Don Juan was without it: In fact, his manner was his own alone. Sincere he was—at least you could not doubt it, In listening merely to his voice's tone. The devil hath not, in all his quiver's choice, An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice. XIV. By nature soft, his whole address held off But modesty's at times its own reward, tion. XV. Serene, accomplish'd, cheerful, but not loud; Insinuating, without insinuation; Observant of the foibles of the crowd, Yet ne'er betraying this in conversation; Proud with the proud, yet courteously proud, So as to make them feel he knew his station And theirs-without a struggle for priority, He neither brook'd nor claim'd superiority As it is necessary in these times to avoid ambiguity, Is that I mean by Diviner still,' Christ. If ever God was AR or man God, He was both. I never arraigned His cred the use, or abuse, made of it. Mr Cauning one day q Christianity to sanction negro slavery, and Mr Wilberfor little to say in reply. And was Christ crucified that black might be scourged? If so, He had better been born a Mo latto, to give both colours an equal chance of freedom, ut u least salvation. [Thou finely would'st say all? Say something ill if thou This extraordinary and flourishing German colony in America does not entirely exclude matrimony, as the 'Shakers' do, but lays such restrictions upon it as prevent more than a certain quantum of births within a certain number of years: which births (as Mr Hulme observes) 'generally arrive in a little flock like those of a farmer's lambs, all within the same month perhaps.' These Harmonists (so called from the name of their settlement) are represented as a remarkably flourishing, pious, and quiet people. See the various recent writers on America. XLII. then there was the Miss Audacia Shoestring, A dashing demoiselle of good estate, Whose heart was fix'd upon a star or blue string; But whether English dukes grew rare of late, Or that she had not harp'd upon the true string By which such sirens can attract our great, She took up with some foreign younger brother, A Russ or Turk-the one's as good as t'other. XLIII. And then there was-but why should I go on, Of the best class, and better than her class- O'er life, too sweet an image for such glass; A lovely being, scarcely form'd or moulded, A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded; Jacob Tonson, according to Mr Pope, was accused to call his writers able pens,' 'persons of honour, and especially 'eminent hands. Vide Correspondence, &c |