The Widow answer’d:  “I had once, like you,
Such thoughts of love; no dream is more untrue;
You judge it fated, and decreed to dwell
In youthful hearts, which nothing can expel,
A passion doom’d to reign, and irresistible. 
The struggling mind, when once subdued, in vain
Rejects the fury or defies the pain;
The strongest reason fails the flames t’allay,
And resolution droops and faints away: 
Hence, when the destined lovers meet, they prove
At once the force of this all-powerful love;
Each from that period feels the mutual smart,
Nor seeks to cure it—­heart is changed for heart;
Nor is there peace till they delighted stand,
And, at the altar—­hand is join’d to hand. 
   “Alas! my child, there are who, dreaming so,
Waste their fresh youth, and waking feel the woe. 
There is no spirit sent the heart to move
With such prevailing and alarming love;
Passion to reason will submit—­or why
Should wealthy maids the poorest swains deny? 
Or how could classes and degrees create
The slightest bar to such resistless fate? 
Yet high and low, you see, forbear to mix;
No beggars’ eyes the heart of kings transfix;
And who but am’rous peers or nobles sigh,
When titled beauties pass triumphant by? 
For reason wakes, proud wishes to reprove;
You cannot hope, and therefore dare not love;
All would be safe, did we at first inquire —
‘Does reason sanction what our hearts desire?’
But quitting precept, let example show
What joys from Love uncheck’d by prudence flow. 
   “A Youth my father in his office placed,
Of humble fortune, but with sense and taste;
But he was thin and pale, had downcast looks: 
He studied much, and pored upon his books: 
Confused he was when seen, and when he saw
Me or my sisters, would in haste withdraw;
And had this youth departed with the year,
His loss had cost us neither sigh nor tear. 
   “But with my father still the youth remain’d,
And more reward and kinder notice gain’d: 
He often, reading, to the garden stray’d,
Where I by books or musing was delay’d;
This to discourse in summer evenings led,
Of these same evenings, or of what we read: 
On such occasions we were much alone;
But, save the look, the manner, and the tone,
(These might have meaning,) all that we discuss’d
We could with pleasure to a parent trust. 
   “At length ’twas friendship—­and my Friend and I
Said we were happy, and began to sigh;
My sisters first, and then my father, found
That we were wandering o’er enchanted ground: 
But he had troubles in his own aifairs,
And would not bear addition to his cares: 
With pity moved, yet angry, ‘Child,’ said he,
‘Will you embrace contempt and beggary?’
Can you endure to see each other cursed
By want, of every human woe the worst? 
Warring for ever with distress, in dread
Either of begging or of wanting bread;