Not that my verse would blemish all the fair;
  But yet, if some be bad, ’tis wisdom to beware;
  And better shun the bait, than struggle in the snare. 
  Thus have you shunn’d, and shun the married state,
  Trusting as little as you can to fate.

    No porter guards the passage of your door,
  To admit the wealthy, and exclude the poor;
  For God, who gave the riches, gave the heart,
  To sanctify the whole, by giving part;
  Heaven, who foresaw the will, the means has wrought, 40
  And to the second son a blessing brought;
  The first-begotten had his father’s share: 
  But you, like Jacob, are Rebecca’s heir.[25]

    So may your stores and fruitful fields increase;
  And ever be you bless’d, who live to bless. 
  As Ceres sow’d, where’er her chariot flew;
  As Heaven in deserts rain’d the bread of dew;
  So free to many, to relations most,
  You feed with manna your own Israel host.

    With crowds attended of your ancient race, 50
  You seek the champion sports, or sylvan chase: 
  With well-breath’d beagles you surround the wood,
  Even then, industrious of the common good: 
  And often have you brought the wily fox
  To suffer for the firstlings of the flocks;
  Chased even amid the folds; and made to bleed,
  Like felons, where they did the murderous deed. 
  This fiery game your active youth maintain’d;
  Not yet by years extinguish’d, though restrain’d: 
  You season still with sports your serious hours:  60
  For age but tastes of pleasures youth devours. 
  The hare in pastures or in plains is found,
  Emblem of human life, who runs the round;
  And, after all his wandering ways are done,
  His circle fills, and ends where he begun—­
  Just as the setting meets the rising sun.

    Thus princes ease their cares; but happier he,
  Who seeks not pleasure through necessity,
  Than such as once on slippery thrones were placed;
  And chasing, sigh to think themselves are chased. 70

    So lived our sires, ere doctors learn’d to kill,
  And multiplied with theirs the weekly bill. 
  The first physicians by debauch were made: 
  Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade,
  Pity the generous kind their cares bestow
  To search forbidden truths (a sin to know),
  To which, if human science could attain,
  The doom of death, pronounced by God, were vain. 
  In vain the leech would interpose delay;
  Fate fastens first, and vindicates the prey. 80
  What help from art’s endeavours can we have? 
  Gibbons[26] but guesses, nor is sure to save: 
  But Maurus[27] sweeps whole parishes, and peoples every grave;
  And no more mercy to mankind will use,
  Than when he robb’d and murder’d Maro’s Muse. 
  Wouldst thou be soon despatch’d, and perish whole,
  Trust Maurus with thy life, and Milbourn[28] with thy soul.