If her large mercies cruelly it reftrain,
Be not discourag'd, but require

A more gentle ordeal fire,

And bid her by Love's flames read it again.

V.

Strange pow'r of Heat! thou yet doft show

Like winter earth, naked, or cloth'd with fnow;

But as the quick'ning fun approaching near,
The plants arife up by degrees,

A fudden paint adorns the trees,

And all kind Nature's characters appear;

VI.

So nothing yet in thee is seen,

But when a genial heat warms thee within,
A new-born wood of various lines there grows;

Here buds an A, and there a B,

Here sprouts a V, and there a T,

And all the flourishing letters stand in rows.

VII.

Still, filly Paper! thou wilt think

That all this might as well be writ with ink.
Oh no; there's fenfe in this, and mystery;
Thou now may'ft change thy author's name,
And to her hand lay noble claim,

For as the reads the makes the words in thee.

VIII.

Yet if thine own unworthiness

Will ftill that thou art mine, not her's, confess,

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35

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Confume thyself with fire before her eyes,

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And fo her grace or pity move:

The gods, tho' beasts they do not love,

Yet like them when they're burnt in sacrifice.

INCONSTANCY.

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FIVE years ago, fays Story, I lov'd you,
For which you call me most Inconftant now.
Pardon me, Madam! you mistake the man,
For I am not the fame that I was then ;
No flesh is now the fame 't was then in me;
And that my mind is chang'd yourself may see.
The fame thoughts to retain still, and intents,
Were more inconstant far; for accidents
Muft of all things more ftrangely' inconftant prove,
If from one fubject they to another move.

My members then the father-members were,

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From whence these take their birth which now are

If then this body love what th' other did,

[here:

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"Twere incest, which by Nature is forbid. You might as well this day inconstant name, Because the weather is not still the fame That it was yesterday; or blame the year, 'Cause the spring flow'rs, and autumn fruit, does bear. The world's a scene of changes, and to be Conftant, in Nature were inconftancy;

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For 't were to break the laws herself has made:
Our fubftances themselves do fleet and fade;
The most fix'd being still does move and fly,
Swift as the wings of Time 't is meafur'd by.
T' imagine then that love fhould never cease,
(Love, which is but the ornament of these)
Were quite as senseless as to wonder why
Beauty and colour stay not when we die.

NOT FAIR.

'Tis very true I thought you once as fair

As women in th' idea are:

Whatever here seems beauteous, feem'd to be

But a faint metaphor of thee:

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But then (methought) there fomething shin'd within

Which caft this luftre o'er thy fkin;

Nor could I chufe but count it the Sun's light
Which made this cloud appear fo bright;
But fince I knew thy falfehood and thy pride,
And all thy thousand faults befide,

A very Moor, methinks, plac'd near to thee,
White as his teeth would seem to be.
So men, they say, by Hell's delufions led,
Have ta'en a fuccubus to their bed,
Believe it fair, and themfelves happy call,

Till the cleft foot difcovers all;

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Then they start from 't, half ghosts themselves with And devil as it is it does appear.

[fear,

So fince against my will I found thee foul,
Deform'd and crooked in thy foul,

My reafon ftraight did to my fenfes show
That they might be mistaken too:

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Nay, when the world but knows how false you are,
There's not a man will think you fair;

Thy shape will monftrous in their fancies be,
They'll call their eyes as falfe as thee.

Be what thou wilt, Hate will present thee fo

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As Puritans do the Pope, and Papists Luther do. 28

PLATONICK LOVE.

INDEED I must confefs,

I.

When fouls mix 't is an happiness;

But not complete till bodies, too, combine,
And closely as our minds together join:
But half of heav'n the fouls in glory taste,
Till by love in heav'n at last

Their bodies, too, are plac'd.

Man, as well as I, thou art;

But fomething 't is that differs thee and me,
And we must one ev'n in that difference be.
I thee both as a man and woman prize,
For a perfect love implies

Love in all capacities.

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Can that for true love pass,

When a fair woman courts her glafs?
Something unlike must in Love's likeness be,
His wonder is one and variety:

For he whofe foul nought but a foul can move,
Does a new Narciffus prove,

And his own image love.

IV.

That fouls do beauty know,

'Tis to the body's help they owe;

If when they know it they straight abuse that truft,

And shut the body from it, 't is as unjust

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As if I brought my dearest friend to fee
My Mistress, and at th' inftant he

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Should steal her quite from me.

THE CHANGE.

I.

Love in her funny eyes does basking play;
Love walks the pleasant mazes of her hair;
Love does on both her lips for ever stray,
And fows and reaps a thousand kiffes there:
In all her outward parts Love 's always feen,
But, oh! he never went within.

Within Love's foes, his greatest foes, abide,
Malice, Inconftancy, and Pride.

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