"Soft yet," return'd our female fencer, "A question more, or so--and then, sir. You've rallied me with sense exceeding, With much fine wit, and better breeding; But pray, sir, how do you contrive it? Do those of your world never wive it?" 'No, no,' "How then?" 'Why dare I tell What does the business full as well.' "Do you ne'er love?" 'An hour at leisure.' "Have you no friendship?" 'Yes, for pleasure.' "No care for little ones?" 'We get 'em; The rest the mothers mind, and let 'em.' "Thou wretch!" rejoin'd the kindling DOVE, "Quite lost to life, as lost to love! Whene'er misfortunes come, how just! And come, misfortune surely must; In the dread season of dismay, In that your hour of trial, say, Who then shall prop your sinking heart? Who bear AFFLICTION'S weightier part? "Say, when the black-brow'd welkin bends, And WINTER'S gloomy form impends, To mourning turns all transient cheer, And blasts the melancholy year; For times at no persuasion stay, Nor vice can find perpetual MAY; Then where's that tongue, by FOLLY fed, That soul of pertness, whither fled? All shrunk within thy lonely nest, Forlorn, abandon'd, and unbless'd; No friends, by cordial bonds ally'd, Shall seek thy cold unsocial side; No chirping prattlers to delight, Shall turn the long-enduring night; No bride her words of balm impart, And warm thee at her constant heart. "FREEDOM, restrain'd by REASON'S force, Is as the sun's unvarying course, Benignly active, sweetly bright, Affording warmth, affording light; But torn from VIRTUE'S sacred rules, Becomes a comet, gaz'd by fools, Foreboding cares, and storms, and strife, And fraught with all the plagues of life. "Thou fool! by union every creature Subsists, through universal nature; And this, to beings void of mind, Is wedlock of a meaner kind. "While womb'd in space, primeval clay A yet unfashion'd embryo lay; The source of endless good above Shot down his spark of kindling love; Touch'd by the all-enliv'ning flame, Then motion first exulting came, Each atom sought its sep'rate class, Through many a fair enamour'd mass; Love cast the central charm around, And with eternal nuptials bound. Then FORM and ORDER, o'er the sky First train'd their bridal pomp on high; The SUN display'd his orb to sight, And burn'd with HYMENEAL light. "Hence NATURE'S virgin womb conceiv'd, And with the genial burthen heav'd; Forth came the oak, her first born heir, And scal'd the breathing steep of air; Then infant stems, of various use, Imbib'd her soft maternal juice. The flow'rs, in early bloom disclos'd, Upon her fragrant breast repos'd; Within her warm embraces grew A race, of endless form and hue; Then pour'd her lesser offspring round, And fondly cloth'd their parent ground.