Page:Poetical Works of the Right Hon. Geo. Granville.djvu/37

Hence follow’d arts, while each employ’d his care,
In new productions, to delight the fair.
To bright Aſpaſia Socrates retir’d;
His wiſdom grew but as his love inſpir’d.30
Thoſe rocks and oaks which ſuch emotions felt,
Were cruel maids whom Orpheus taught to melt.
Muſic and ſongs, and ev’ry way to move
The raviſh’d heart, were ſeeds and plants of love.
The gods, entic’d by ſo divine a birth,35
Deſcend from heav’n to this new heav’n on earth.
Thy wit, O Mercury! is no defence from love;
Nor, Mars! thy target; nor thy thunder, Jove!
The mad immortals, in a thouſand ſhapes,
Range the wide globe: ſome yield, ſome ſuffer rapes;40
Invaded or deceiv’d, not one eſcapes:
The wise, tho’ a bright goddeſs, thus gives place
To mortal concubines of freſh embrace.
By ſuch examples were we taught to ſee
The life and ſoul of love is ſweet variety.45
In those firſt times, ere charming womankind
Reform’d their pleaſures, poliſhing the mind,
Rude were their revels, and obſcene their joys,
The broils of drunkards, and the luſt of boys:
Phœbus laments for Hyacinthus dead,50
And Juno, jealous, ſtorms at Ganymede.
Return, my Muſe! and cloſe that odious ſcene,
Nor ſtain thy verſe with images unclean: