47
47
TO ELIZA.[1]
1.
Eliza![2] what fools are the Mussulman sect,
Who, to woman, deny the soul's future existence;
Could they see thee, Eliza! they'd own their defect,
And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance.[3]
2.
Had their Prophet possess'd half an atom of sense,[4]
He ne'er would have woman from Paradise driven;
Instead of his Houris, a flimsy pretence,[5]
With woman alone he had peopled his Heaven.
3.
Yet, still, to increase your calamities more,[6]
Not content with depriving your bodies of spirit,
He allots one poor husband to share amongst four![7]—
With souls you'd dispense; but, this last, who could bear it?
- ↑ To Miss E. P.—[4to]
To Miss ——.—[P. on V. Occasions.] - ↑ [The letters "E. B. P." are added, in a lady's hand, in the annotated copy of P. on V. Occasions, p. 26 (British Museum). The initials stand for Miss Elizabeth Pigot.]
- ↑ Did they know but yourself they would bend with respect,
And this doctrine must meet ——.—[MS. Newstead.] - ↑ But an atom of sense.—[4to]
- ↑ But instead of his Houris.—[4to]
- ↑ But still to increase.—[4to]
- ↑ He allots but one husband.—[4to]
