"Be but my friend! I ask no dearer name;
Be fuch the meed of fome more artful fair:
"Nor could it heal my peace, or chase my
"That pity gave what love refus'd to fhare.

fhame,

"Force not my tongue to afk it's scanty bread;
"Nor hurl thy Jeffy to the vulgar crew:
"Not fuch the parent's board at which I fed ;
"Not fuch the precept from his lips I drew!

Haply, when age has filver'd o'er my hair, "Malice may learn to fcorn fo mean a spoil; "Envy may flight a face no longer fair,

"And pity welcome to my native soil !”

7

She spoke-nor was I born of favage race;
• Nor could these hands a niggard boon affign:

• Grateful fhe clafp'd me in a last embrace,

• And vow'd to wafte her life in pray'rs for mine.

* I faw her foot the lofty bark afcend;

• I faw her breaft with every paffion heave:
I left her-torn from every earthly friend;
• Oh! my hard bofom, which could bear to leave!

Brief let me be the fatal storm arose ;

The billows rag'd; the pilot's art was vain : O'er the tall maft the circling furges clofe; • My Jeffy-floats upon the watʼry plain !

And-fee my youth's impetuous fires decay!
• Seek not to stop reflection's bitter tear;
But warn the frolick, and inftruct the gay,

From Jeffy, floating on her wat❜ry bier!

AN EPISTLE TO THE REV. MR. MADAN;

OCCASIONED BY

HIS LATE PUBLICATION IN FAVOUR OF POLYGAMY,

INTITLED,

THELYPHTHORA;. OR, A TREATISE ON FEMALE RUIN. BY THE REV. MR. WYNNE.

A Bard, O MADAN, tho' to the unknown,

Pleas'd real worth in any breast to own;

A Bard who oft, attendant on thy lore,
Has heard thee truths of Sacred Writ explore ;
Now to thine ear prefers his humble strain,
Nor deems the gen'rous labour shall be vain,
Born in an age when diffipation's fway'
Proves that our virtue and our fame decay,

Prompt to support Religion's drooping cause,

Bold you ftand forth, and point to Heav'n's own laws.

And well, indeed, in a degen'rate age,

A theme like yours might pious minds engage.

Love! the firft foother of all human woe,

Love! the chief blifs that mortals taste below, take

By Luft adult'rous driv'n, alas! retires,

And Hymen's torch, inverted thus, expires!

Man still delights from fair to fair to rove,

Woman prefers Variety to Love ;

The nuptial ties they break with eager hands,

As Samfon did the Philiftéan bands.

To check this torrent, in your Work we find,

A bold defign connubial blifs to bind.

To Science bred, with Scripture: Learning fraught,
You lay down rules from diftant ages brought,

From Holy Writ as well as Reason trac'd,
With all the force of flow'ry periods grac'd.

You

You tell us,

Man, tho' ftyl'd the lord of all,
Is by the weaker sex ftill held in thrall,
• Because to One alone his vows he gives,

And still (if juft) to One devoted lives:
While Heav'n itself, enacting no fuch laws,
Has left him free to vindicate his cause ;
To fhew the fex he is their proper head,
And take, at pleasure, numbers to his bed.'
Hard were the tafk, thro' various books to rove,
And Negatives by Implication prove!

Scripture, indeed, does a wide field display,

A field where thousands tread, where thoufands ftray:
Then let not human pride refuse to own
Errors to which all human-kind are prone.

The Muse with candour fhall your steps attend,

Blame where the muft; and where he can, commend.
The Patriarchs, and Judea's Kings, 'tis true,

Had many wives, yet kept their Law in view ;
But at Creation's earliest birth, we find,

One Eve was only to one Adam join'd.

No forms could then prevail, for none were known,
Where fimple Nature was the bond alone. ́.
But Time brought forms, the truth of man to prove,
And by Religion join those join'd by Love.
Our Christian Laws their excellence maintain,
Beyond all those which mark'd out Nature's reign;
Or thofe of old from thund'ring Sinai giy'n,
E'en to the people favour'd moft by Heav'n.
Heathens obferv'd the Chriftians modeft lives,
Who ftill disclaim'd Plurality of Wives *;

Celfus, and other Heathens, observed the chastity of the lives of Chrif tians. It was also observed, that though celibacy was not prescribed to the clergy, yet a bishop, priest or deacon, having buried his first wife, was not allowed to marry again; which some think to be the true meaning of Paul's advice to Timothy; that a bishop should be the busband of one wife: contrary to Mr. Madan's conftruction of the text.

I 2

Whether

Whether by Precept or Example taught,
Tis plain, at leaft, they acted as they thought.
While fome, more strict, a single life defir'd,
And oft to defarts, woods, and caves, retir'd.
Such were the primitive and simple times,
Unknown to modern wit, and modern crimes :
The Wife was fubject; while, with gentle fway,
The Hufband taught the weaker to obey.
Nor yet did Man, with an unhallow'd flame,
To more than One put in his modest claim:
But Mahomet's new fect a law allow'd,
Well fram'd to captivate the giddy crowd;
He taught that wild variety to prove,
Where fierce delight takes place of real love*.

.1

Such are the proofs which on our fenfes breaks... sil

Is Scripture filent then let Reason speak. :

Go, ranfack other climes, fearch Afia round,
Where in it's height Polygamy is found;
There may you fee the men tyrannick fway,
And beauteous flaves reluctantly obey;
There may you find excess the fav'rite theme,
And ev'ry paffion reigning in extreme ↑.

But not to scenes like these is Love confind,
Nor fickle paffions, changing with the wind
Love nourishes a pure and facred fire,

Fann'd by esteem, tho' kindled by defire!!
From youth to age, true love will still remain,
Attend in fickness, foothe the bed of pain;
Thro' all life's vary'd paths it's kindness shew,
But most where toils and dreaded dangers grow!

We find by the Koran, that this Grand Impoftor does not allow women to have immortal fouls; he therefore picks out wives for his faints from the Houries, or fabled Daughters of Paradise.

In confequence of this, it is well known, that whilft numbers of women are fhut up in the Harams, perpetual jealoufies prevail: among them; and their haughty lord, though he may gratify at pleasure his inordinate paffioną, can never experience the fupreme felicity of having a fair companion, a conftant lover, and a tender friend.

For

For living ftreams, as the parch'd heifer burns;
As to the polar ftar the needle turns;

As Echo, pleas'd, repeats the dying voice;
So the touch'd heart is faithful to it's choice!
A flame thus true, e'en infidels might own,
Shews conftant Love must fix on one alone:
Still, Dove-like, to the tender partner join'd,

In death united, as in life combin'd..

Then let not Fancy's labyrinth enfnare, And lead us from the perfect and the fair..... Love is the law of Nature beft exprefs'd,

'Tis Heav'n's own emblem in the human breast;
When either fex confefs his kind controul,

And thus become one life, one heart, one foul*.'
Nature, and Nature's God, o'er all the earth,
Have form'd us nearly equal at our birth † ;
But were there many wives for man defign'd,
Nature would multiply the female kind;
Else why should we adopt, in this alone,
• Th' enormous faith, of many made for one?
That faith let flaves in Eastern climates hold,
Who barter beauty, ill-exchang'd for gold:
While Britain's fons, of manners more refin'd,
Affert the gen'ral rights of human-kind;
Whate'er their vices, Tyranny defpife,
Nor once invade the Liberty they prize?

Be this their boaft; nor, MADAN, thou disdain
The folemn truths that deck this humble ftrain:
The gen'rous mind, ftill to conviction free,
Can it's own faults, if truly painted, fee.

*Milton's Paradife Loft.

It is generally faid, that there are about fourteen males born to thirteen males; which difference is supposed to be intended by Providence to fupply the places of fuch of the men as perish by war or other accidents to which women are not fo liable. Some have indeed urged, that this fmall difproportion ftill leaves the males more numerous: they forget, however, the numbers of women who die in childbirth, and of difeafes peculiar to the fex.

Zeal