Page:Poems upon Several Occasions.djvu/166

Flor.Hard is the Task, in Love or Grief to feign;
When Passion is sincere, it will complain:
Doubts that from Rumour rose, you shou'd suspend;
From evil Tongues what Virtue can defend?
In Love, who injures by a rash Distrust,
Is the Aggressor, and the first unjust.

Amad.If she is true, why all this Nuptial Noise,
Still echoing as we pass her guilty Joys?
Who to a Woman trusts his Peace of Mind,
Trusts a frail Bark, with a tempestuous Wind.
Thus to Ulysses, on the Stygian Coast
His Fate enquiring, spake Atrides's Ghost;
Of all the Plagues with which the World is curst,
Of ev'ry Ill, a Woman is the worst;
Trust not a Woman.———Well might he advise,
who perish'd by his Wife's Adulteries.

Flor.Thus in Despair, what most we love, we wrong,
Not Heav'n escapes the impious Atheist's Tongue.

Amad.Enticing Crocodiles, whose Tears are Death;
Sirens, that murder with enchanting Breath:
Like Egypt's Temples, dazling to the Sight,
Pompously deck'd, all gaudy, gay, and bright;
with glitt'ring Gold and sparkling Gems they shine,
But Apes and Monkeys are the Gods within.

Flor.My Love attends with Pain, while you pursue
This angry Theme: I have a Mistress too:
The faultless Form no secret Stains disgrace,
A beauteous Mind unblemish'd as her Face,