LINES WRITTEN IN A BLANK PAGE OF
MILTON'S PARADISE LOST.'

THIS happy pair a certain bliss might prove,
Confined to constancy and mutual love :
Heaven to one object limited their vows,
The only safety faithless Nature knows.
God saw the wand'ring appetite would range,

And would have kept them from the power to change;
But falsehood, soon as man increased, began;
Down through the race the swift contagion ran,
All ranks are tainted, all deceitful prove,
False in all shapes, but doubly false in love.
This makes the censure of the world more just,
That damns with shame the weakness of a trust!
Ere change began, our sex no scandal knew,
All nymphs were chaste as long as swains were true;
But now, tho' by the subtlest art betray'd,
We're so by custom and false maxims sway'd
That infamy still brands the injured maid.

WITH toilsome steps I pass thro' life's dull road
(No pack-horse half so tired of his load);
And when this dirty journey will conclude,
To what new realms is then my way pursued?
Say, then does the unbodied spirit fly

To happier climes and to a better sky?

1 It appears from the Strawberry Hill Catalogue, that "in the Glass Closet" was a copy of "Milton's Paradise Lost, given by the Duke of Wharton to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who has written verses in the first leaf.”—T.

2 Sent by the Countess of Pomfret to the Countess of Hertford, Nov. 2, N.S., 1740.-See Hertford and Pomfret Correspondence, ii. 53. Lady Pomfret says: "I shall conclude this letter with a philosophical reflection of Lady Mary's. She says that no one has had a copy of it but myself, so pray do not let us make it public." This poem is now for the first time added to Lady Mary's Works.-T.

Or, sinking, mixes with its kindred clay,
And sleeps a whole eternity away?
Or shall this form be once again renewed,
With all its frailties, all its hopes, endued;
Acting once more on this detested stage
Passions of youth, infirmities of age?

I see in Tully what the ancients thought,
And read unprejudiced what moderns taught;
But no conviction from my reading springs-
Most dubious on the most important things.
Yet one short moment would at once explain
What all philosophy has sought in vain ;
Would clear all doubt, and terminate all pain.
Why then not hasten that decisive hour;
Still in my view, and ever in my power?
Why should I drag along this life I hate,
Without one thought to mitigate the weight?
Whence this mysterious bearing to exist,
When every joy is lost, and every hope dismissed?
In chains and darkness wherefore should I stay,
And mourn in prison whilst I keep the key?

[TO CLIO.

OCCASIONED BY HER VERSES ON FRIENDSHIP.1

While, Clio, pondering o'er thy lines I roll,
Dwell on each thought, and meditate thy soul,
Methinks I view thee in some calm retreat,
Far from all guilt, distraction, and deceit ;
Thence pitying view the thoughtless fair and gay,
Who whirl their lives in giddiness away.

Thence greatly scorning what the world calls great,
Contemn the proud, their tumults, power, and state,

[1 This piece, though not given in the Wharncliffe editions, has appeared at least twice before as by Lady Mary, viz., in 1766 and in 1811. The heading suggests the possibility that it is an answer to Mary Astell's" Ode to Friendship," which Lady Louisa Stuart gives in her "Anecdotes as addressed to Lady Mary. (See i. p. cv).]

And deem it thence inglorious to descend
For aught below but virtue and a friend.

How com'st thou fram'd, so different from thy sex,
Whom trifles ravish, and whom trifles vex?
Capricious things, all flutter, whim, and show,
And light and varying as the winds that blow;
To candour, sense, to love, to friendship blind,
To flatterers, fools, and coxcombs only kind!
Say whence those hints, those bright ideas came,
That warm thy breast with friendship's holy flame,
That close thy heart against the joys of youth,
And ope thy mind to all the rays of truth,
That with such sweetness and such grace unite
The gay, the prudent, virtuous, and polite?
As heaven inspires thy sentiment divine,

May heaven vouchsafe a friendship worthy thine;
A friendship plac'd where ease and fragrance reign,
Where nature sways us and no laws restrain,
Where studious leisure, prospects unconfin'd,
And heavenly musing, lift th' aspiring mind.
There with thy friend, may years on years be spent,
In blooming health, and ever gay content;
There soothe the passions, there unfold your hearts,
Join in each wish, and warming into love,
Approach the raptures of the blest above.]

INDEX.