Recorded next a Babe of Love I trace! Of many Loves, the Mother’s fresh disgrace;-- “Again, thou Harlot! could not all thy pain, “All my reproof, thy wanton thoughts restrain?” ‘Alas! your Reverence, wanton thoughts, I grant, ‘Were once my motive, now the thoughts of want; ‘Women like me, as ducks in a decoy, ‘Swim down a stream and seem to swim in joy; ‘Your Sex pursue us and our own disdain, ‘Return is dreadful and escape is vain. ‘Would Men forsake us and would Women strive ‘To help the fall’n, their Virtue might revive.’ For Rite of Churching soon she made her way, In dread of Scandal, should she miss the day:-- Two Matrons came! with them she humbly knelt, Their action copied and their comforts felt, From that great pain and peril to be free, Though still in peril of that pain to be; Alas! what numbers like this amorous Dame, Are quick to censure but are dead to shame! Twin-Infants then appear, a Girl, a Boy, Th’ o’erflowing cup of _Gerard Ablett_’s joy: Seven have I nam’d, and but six years have past By him and _Judith_ since I bound them fast; Well pleas’d, the Bridegroom smil’d to hear--“A Vine “Fruitful and spreading round the walls be thine, “And branch-like be thine Offspring!”--_Gerard_ then Look’d joyful love, and softly said, ‘Amen.’ Now of that Vine he would no more increase, Those playful Branches now disturb his peace; Them he beholds around his table spread, But finds, the more the Branch, the less the Bread; And while they run his humble walls about, They keep the sunshine of good-humour out. Cease, man, to grieve! thy Master’s lot survey, Whom Wife and Children, thou and thine obey; A Farmer proud, beyond a Farmer’s pride, Of all around the envy or the guide; Who trots to market on a steed so fine, That when I meet him, I’m asham’d of mine; Whose board is high up-heap’d with generous fare, } Which five stout Sons and three tall Daughters share:} Cease, man, to grieve, and listen to his care. } A few years fled, and all thy Boys shall be Lords of a Cot, and labourers like thee; Thy Girls unportioned neighbouring youths shall lead, Brides from my Church, and thenceforth thou art freed: But then thy Master shall of cares complain, Care after care, a long connected train; His Sons for Farms shall ask a large supply, For Farmer’s sons each gentle Miss shall sigh; Thy Mistress reasoning well of life’s decay, Shall ask a chaise and hardly brook delay; The smart young Cornet who, with so much grace, Rode in the ranks and betted at the Race, While the vext parent rails at deed so rash, Shall d--n his luck, and stretch his hand for cash. Sad troubles, _Gerard!_ now pertain to thee, When thy rich Master seems from trouble free; But ’tis one fate at different times assign’d,