“So ends the Vision and the Sens[e]!” she cry’d. The Matron smil’d, was thoughtful, and reply’d: “Thy previous fears to these suggestions led; Ah, tell me all that Emely can dread! Suspect’st thou Tracy’s Virtue, Love or Truth? What is thy Trouble?”—“Inexperienc’d Youth. Scarcely is Cecil from his Tutor free, } And my poor Nurse emancipated me, } When Love our Union plans, and all with Love agree. 370} But a few days, and thou wilt see thy Son Lord of his land, an Heir at twenty-one! And, agèd just nineteen, with purchas’d Aid Of special guides, I stand—a wond’rous Maid. To grace my Person some their arts combin’d, With varied Learning some to cram the Mind; But all I know of Letters, Form and Life Seems ill to fit me for your Tracy’s Wife. What are these girlish works, these quivering Notes, With which we pain our fingers and our throats, 380 What graceful Manners, and an Air of Ease, } A power of pleasing, a Desire to please, } A Temper mildly sweet, and gay good things like these? } Let them be seen, and they engage the while The approving Eye and the assenting Smile— Nay, join’d with Beauty and display’d with art, To one directed, they have gain’d the Heart— But will not Tracy ask substantial things; Will he be happy with a bride who sings; Who, when her Husband would her Virtue trace, 390 Will entertain him with each Girlish Grace? Will he the partner of his thoughts admire For Arts and forms her teachers can inspire, And give to her the Secrets of his Heart, Whose own has nought but trifles to impart? I, too, with him upon the Lake could be, Sing in the Tent and dance upon the Lea; I in the House of Harmony might raise Th’approving Look in him who loves to praise. But on that Sea—and now, methinks, I sip 400 The salt Sea-brine that dash’d upon my Lip In that old Boat, so shocking to each Sense, And all the Horror I espied from thence; And, more than these, in that vile hovel, den Of need and Guilt, that was so dreadful then! In Scenes like these, or what these Scenes portend, } How could I cheer my Partner, how defend, } Or be th’ Adviser, Comforter or friend? } Should I not then—but let me not appear A Vision’s Victim, Misery’s Volunteer— 410 But should I not—at least, till I attain Maturer years—in maiden State remain?” “Appeal to Cecil,” said the Matron; “say, ‘Thou hadst my promise for th’ important Day; The Mother’s Wishes, and the full Consent Of all were thine, nor yet do I repent; But a dark dream of mingled good and ill Affects my Bosom and contracts my Will; And these, it tells me, as I cannot shun, I fly to Sorrow, to make sure of one.’ 420 Child of my Heart! these boding fears suppress; They often make, they ever point, Distress. Tho’ young, yet Heav’n has to [thy] charge confin’d [The] noble Treasure of a powerful Mind.