Then spoke with cenfure or applause,
Of foreign cuftoms, rites, and laws;
Thro' nature and thro' art she rang'd,
And gracefully her fubject chang'd:
In vain her hearers had no fhare

:

In all she spoke, except to stare.
Their judgment was upon the whole,
-That lady is the dulleft foul-

355

Then tipt their forehead in a jeer,

360

As who should sayShe wants it here;

She may be handfome, young, and rich,

Their clamour, 'lighting from their chairs,
Grew louder all the way up

ftairs;

At entrance loudeft; where they found

370

The room with volumes litter'd round.
Vaneffa held Montaigne, and read,
Whilft Mrs Susan comb'd her head.
They call'd for tea and chocolate,
And fell into their usual chat,
Difcourfing, with important face,

375

On ribbons, fans, and gloves and lace;
Shew'd patterns just from India brought,

And gravely afk'd her what the thought;
Whether the red or green were best,

And what they coft? Vaneffa guefs'd

As came into her fancy first

3801

Nam'd half the rates, and lik'd the worst.

Corinna, with that youthful air,
Is thirty, and a bit to spare:
Her fondness for a certain Earl
Began, when I was but a girl.
Phillis, who but a month ago

Was marry'd to the Tunbridge beau,.
I faw coquetting t'other night.

390

And gave by turns their cenfures vent.
She's not fo handfome in my eyes:

410

For wit, I wonder where it lies.

She's fair and clean, and that's the most:

With all her wit, I would not ask

Her judgment how to buy a mask.
We begg'd her but to patch her face,
She never hit one proper place;

420

VANESSA.
Which ev'ry girl at five years old

Can do, as foon as fhe is told.
I own, that out-of-fashion stuff

Becomes the creature well enough.,

The girl might pafs, if we could get her

To know the world a little better.

(To know the world! a modern phrase For vifits, ombre, balls, and plays).

THUS, to the world's perpetual shame,
The queen of beauty loft her aim.

Too late with grief fhe understood,
Pallas had done more harm than good :
For great examples are but vain,
Where ignorance begets disdain..
Both fexes, arm'd with guilt and spite,
Against Vaneffa's pow'r unite:
To copy her few nymphs afpir'd ;
Her virtues fewer fwains admir'd.
So ftars beyond a certain height
Give mortals neither heat nor light.

YET fome of either fex, endow'd

425

430

435

440

With gifts fuperior to the croud,

445

With virtue, knowledge, tafte, and wit,

Could please them, and improve her own.
A modeft youth faid fomething new ;

She plac'd it in the strongest view.

455

All humble worth fhe ftrove to raife;

Would not be prais'd, yet lov'd to praise.

The learned met with free approach,
Altho' they came not in a coach:

Some clergy too she would allow,

Nor quarrell'd at their awkward bow.
But this was for Cadenus' fake,
A gownman of a diff'rent make ;:
Whom Pallas, once Vaneffa's tutor;
Had fix'd on for her coadjutor.

BUT Cupid, full of mischief, longs
To vindicate his mother's wrongs..
On Pallas all attempts are vain :
One way he knows to give her pain;
Vows on Vaneffa's heart to take
Due vengeance for her patron's fake.
Those early feeds by Venus fown,
In fpite of Pallas, now were grown ;
And Cupid hop'd, they would improve
By time, and ripen into love..
The boy made use of all his craft,

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465

470

475

But not prevent, the fates decree :

485

And human caution tries in vain
To break that adamantine chain.
Vaneffa, tho' by Pallas taught,
By Love invulnerable thought,
Searching in books for wisdom's aid,
Was, in the very search, betray'd.

CUPID, tho' all his darts were loff,
Yet ftill refolv'd to spare no coft:
He could not answer to his fame
The triumphs of that stubborn dame,

490

395

A nymph fo hard to be fubdu'd,

Who neither was coquette nor prude.
I find, faid he, fhe wants a doctor
Both to adore her, and inftruct her:
I'll give her what she most admires
Among thofe venerable fires.
Cadenus is a fubject fit,

500

And, while the book was in her hand,
The urchin from his private stand

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With pains unknown, increas'd her fmart.
* VANESSA, not in years a fcore,
Dreams of a gown of forty-four;
Imaginary charms can find

In eyes with reading almost blind :

525

The poet having before thewed the caufe of Vaneffa's difappointment, here reprefents Vanella, who was intended to animate every woman to imitation, and infpire every man with love, as compelled to make advances to one, who had fearce fenfibility enough to understand them. Hawkef.