'In truth,' rejoin'd LOVE'S gentle god, 'You've gone a tedious length of road; And, strange! in all the toilsome way No house of kind refreshment lay; No nymph, whose virtues might have tempted To hold her from her sex exempted.' "For one, we'll never quarrel, man, Take her, and keep her, if you can; And pleas'd I yield to your petition, Since every fair, by such permission, Will hold herself the one selected, And so my system stands protected." 'O deaf to VIRTUE, deaf to GLORY, To truths divinely vouch'd in story!' The godhead, in his zeal return'd, And kindling at her malice burn'd. Then sweetly rais'd his voice, and told Of heav'nly nymphs, rever'd of old; HYPSIPYLE, who sav'd her sire; And PORTIA'S love, approv'd by fire; Alike PENELOPE was quoted, Nor laurel'd DAPHNE pass'd unnoted, Nor LAODAMIA'S fatal garter, Nor fam'd LUCRETIA, honour's martyr, ALCESTE'S voluntary steel, And CATHERINE smiling on the wheel. But who can hope to plant conviction, Where cavil grows on contradiction! Some she evades, or disavows, Demurs to all, and none allows; A kind of ancient things, call'd fables! And thus the goddess turn'd the tables. Now both in argument grew high, And choler flash'd from either eye; Nor wonder each refus'd to yield The conquest of so fair a field. When happily arriv'd in view A goddess, whom our grandames knew, Of aspect grave, and sober gait, Majestic, awful, and sedate, As heav'n's autumnal eve serene, Where not a cloud o'ercasts the scene, Once PRUDENCE call'd, a matron fam'd, And in old ROME CORNELIA nam'd. Quick, at a venture, both agree To leave their strife to her decree. And now by each the facts were stated, In form and manner as related; The case was short--They crav'd opinion, Which held o'er females chief dominion? When thus the goddess, answering mild, First shook her gracious head, and smil'd: "Alas! how willing to comply, Yet how unfit a judge am I! In times of golden date, 'tis true, I shar'd the fickle sex with you; But from their presence long precluded, Or held as one whose form intruded, Full fifty annual suns can tell, Prudence has bid the sex farewell." In this dilemma, what to do, Or who to think of, neither knew; For both, still bias'd in opinion, And arrogant of sole dominion, Were forc'd to hold the case compounded, Or leave the quarrel where they found it. When in the nick, a rural fair, Of inexperienc'd gait and air, Who ne'er had cross'd the neighb'ring lake, Nor seen the world beyond a wake; With cambric coif, and kerchief clean, Trip'd lightly by them o'er the green.