Dupes to their dreams--but I the truth impart, 60 You cannot, child, afford to have a heart. Think nothing of it; to yourself be true, And keep life’s first great business in your view-- Take it, dear Martha, for a useful rule, She who is poor is ugly or a fool; Or, worse than either, has a bosom fill’d With soft emotions, and with raptures thrill’d. “Read not too much, nor write in verse or prose, For then you make the dull and foolish foes; Yet those who do deride not nor condemn, 70 It is not safe to raise up foes in them; For though they harm you not, as blockheads do, There is some malice in the scribbling crew.” Such her advice; full hard with her had dealt The world, and she the usage keenly felt. “Keep your good name,” she said, “and that to keep You must not suffer vigilance to sleep. Some have, perhaps, the name of chaste retain’d, When nought of chastity itself remain’d; But there is danger--few have means to blind 80 The keen-eyed world, and none to make it kind. “And one thing more--to free yourself from foes Never a secret to your friend disclose; Secrets with girls, like loaded guns with boys, Are never valued till they make a noise; To show how trusted, they their power display; To show how worthy, they the trust betray; Like pence in children’s pockets secrets lie In female bosoms--they must burn or fly. “Let not your heart be soften’d; if it be, 90 Let not the man his softening influence see; For the most fond will sometimes tyrants prove, And wound the bosom where they trace the love. But to your fortune look, on that depend } For your life’s comfort; comforts that attend } On wealth alone--wealth gone, they have their end.” } Such were my mother’s cares to mend my lot, And such her pupil they succeeded not. It was conceived the person I had then Might lead to serious thoughts some wealthy men, 100 Who, having none their purpose to oppose, Would soon be won their wishes to disclose. My mother thought I was the very child By whom the old and amorous are beguiled: So mildly gay, so ignorantly fair, And pure, no doubt, as sleeping infants are; Then I had lessons how to look and move, And, I repeat, make merchandize of love. Thrice it was tried if one so young could bring Old wary men to buy the binding ring; 110 And on the taper finger, to whose tip The fond old swain would press his withering lip, Place the strong charm:--and one would win my heart By re-assuming youth--a trying part; Girls, he supposed, all knew the young were bold, And he would show that spirit in the old; In boys they loved to hear the rattling tongue, And he would talk as idly as the young;