This page needs to be proofread.
Why should I think that man would do for me
What yet he never did for wretches like me?
Mark by what partial justice we are judg'd :
Such is the fate unhappy women find,
And such the curse entail'd upon our kind,
That man, the lawless libertine, may rove,
Free and unquestion'd through the wilds of love;
While woman, sense and nature's easy fool,
If poor weak woman swerve from virtue's rule,
If strongly charm'd, she leave the thorny way,
And in the softer paths of pleasure stray,
Ruin ensues, reproach, and endless shame,
And one false step entire damns her fame;
In vain with tears the loss she may deplore,
In vain look back to what she was before :
She sets, like stars that fall to rise no more.
What yet he never did for wretches like me?
Mark by what partial justice we are judg'd :
Such is the fate unhappy women find,
And such the curse entail'd upon our kind,
That man, the lawless libertine, may rove,
Free and unquestion'd through the wilds of love;
While woman, sense and nature's easy fool,
If poor weak woman swerve from virtue's rule,
If strongly charm'd, she leave the thorny way,
And in the softer paths of pleasure stray,
Ruin ensues, reproach, and endless shame,
And one false step entire damns her fame;
In vain with tears the loss she may deplore,
In vain look back to what she was before :
She sets, like stars that fall to rise no more.
Weak minds court opinion,
And dead to virtuous feeling hide their wants
In pompous affectation.
Southerne.
And dead to virtuous feeling hide their wants
In pompous affectation.
Southerne.
O Leolyn, be obstinately just;
Indulge no passion, and deceive no trust.
Let never man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther, shall my passion stray;
Indulge no passion, and deceive no trust.
Let never man be bold enough to say,
Thus, and no farther, shall my passion stray;
