their fancies run,
    And dance incessant on the flippant tongue. 
    And when fatigued with ev’ry other sport,
    The belles prepare to grace the sacred court,
    They marshal all their forces in array,
    To kill with glances and destroy in play. 
    Two skilful maids, with reverential fear,
    In wanton wreaths collect their silken hair;
    Two paint their cheeks, and round their temples pour
    The fragrant unguent, and the ambrosial show’r;
    One pulls the shape-creating stays, and one
    Encircles round her waist the golden zone: 
    Not with more toil t’ improve immortal charms,
    Strove Juno, Venus, and the Queen of Arms,
    When Priam’s Son adjudg’d the golden prize
    To the resistless beauty of the skies. 
    At length equip’d in love’s enticing arms,
    With all that glitters and with all that charms,
    Th’ ideal goddesses to church repair,
    Peep thro’ the fan and mutter o’er a pray’r,
    Or listen to the organ’s pompous sound,
    Or eye the gilded images around;
    Or, deeply studied in coquetish rules,
    Aim wily glances at unthinking fools;
    Or shew the lilly hand with graceful air,
    Or wound the fopling with a lock of hair: 
    And when the hated discipline is o’er,
    And Misses tortur’d with Repent no more,
    They mount the pictur’d coach, and to the play
    The celebrated idols hie away.

    Not so the Lass that shou’d my joys improve,
    With solid friendship, and connubial love: 
    A native bloom, with intermingled white,
    Should set features in a pleasing light;
    Like Helen flushing with unrival’d charms. 
    When raptur’d Paris darted in her arms. 
    But what, alas! avails a ruby cheek,
    A downy bosom, or a snowy neck! 
    Charms ill supply the want of innocence,
    Nor beauty forms intrinsic excellence: 
    But in her breast let moral beauties shine,
    Supernal grace and purity divine: 
    Sublime her reason, and her native wit
    Unstrain’d with pedantry and low conceit;
    Her fancy lively, and her judgment free,
    From female prejudice and bigotry: 
    Averse to idle pomp, and outward show,
    The flatt’ring coxcomb, and fantastic beau.

    The fop’s impertinence she should despise,
    Tho’ sorely wounded by her radient eyes;
    But pay due rev’rence to the exalted mind
    By learning polish’d, and by wit refin’d,
    Who all her virtues, without guile, commends,
    And all her faults as freely reprehends. 
    Soft Hymen’s rites her passion should approve,
    And in her bosom glow the flames of love: 
    To me her foul, by sacred friendship turn,
    And I, for her, with equal friendship burn;
    In ev’ry stage of life afford relief,