“But ever frowns your Hymen? Man and Maid, “Are all repenting, suffering or betray’d?” Forbid it Love! we have our Couples here, Who hail the Day in each revolving Year: These are with us, as in the World around; They are not frequent, but they may be found. Our Farmers too, what though they fail to prove, In Hymen’s Bonds, the tenderest Slaves of Love, (Nor, like those Pairs whom Sentiment unites, Feel they the fervour of the Mind’s Delights;) Yet coarsely kind and comfortably gay, They heap the Board and hail the happy Day; And though the Bride, now freed from School, admits Of Pride implanted there, some transient fits; Yet soon she casts her girlish Flights aside, And in substantial Blessings rests her Pride. No more she plays, no more attempts to fit Her steps responsive to the squeaking Kit; No more recites her French, the Hinds among, But chides her Maidens in her mother-tongue; Her Tambour-frame she leaves and Diet spare, Plain-work and Plenty with her House to share; Till, all her Varnish lost, in few short years, In all her Worth, the Farmer’s Wife appears. Yet not the ancient Kind; nor she who gave Her soul to gain--a Mistress and a Slave; Who not to Sleep allow’d the needful Time! To whom Repose was loss, and Sport a crime; Who in her meanest Room, (and all were mean,) A noisy Drudge, from morn till night was seen;-- But she, the Daughter, boasts a decent Room, Adorn’d with Carpet, form’d in Wilton’s loom; Fair Prints along the paper’d wall are spread; } There, _Werter_ sees the sportive Children fed,} And _Charlotte_ here, bewails her Lover dead. } ’Tis here, assembled, while in room apart Their Husbands drinking warm the opening heart, Our neighbouring Dames, on Festal Days, unite With tongues more fluent and with hearts as light; Their’s is that Art, which English Wives alone, Profess--a boast and privilege their own; An Art it is, where each at once attends To all, and claims attention from her Friends, When they engage the Tongue, the Eye, the Ear; Reply when list’ning, and when speaking hear: The ready Converse knows no dull delays, “But double are the Pains, and double be the Praise[9].” Yet not to those alone who bear Command, Heav’n gives a Heart to hail the Marriage Band; Among their servants, we the Pairs can show, Who much to Love and more to Prudence owe: _Reuben_ and _Rachel_, though as fond as Doves, Were yet discreet and cautious in their Loves; Nor would attend to _Cupid_’s wild Commands, Till cool Reflection bade them join their Hands; When both were poor, they thought it argued ill Of hasty Love to make them poorer still; Year after year, with Savings long laid by, They bought the future Dwelling’s full Supply: Her frugal Fancy cull’d the smaller Ware,