Page:The Works of Abraham Cowley - volume 1 (ed. Aikin) (1806).djvu/261

"The Rachel, for which twice seven years and more
“Thou didst with faith and labour serve,
"And didst (if faith and labour can) deserve,
"Though she contracted was to thee,
"Given to another, who had store
"Of fairer and of richer wives before,
"And not a Leah left, thy recompence to be!
"Go on: twice seven years more thy fortune try;
"Twice seven years more God in his bounty may
"Give thee, to fling away
"Into the court's deceitful lottery:
“But think how likely 't is that thou,
"With the dull work of thy unwieldy plough,
"Shouldst in a hard and barren season thrive,
"Should even able be to live;
"Thou, to whose share so little bread did fall,
"In the miraculous year when manna rain'd on all.”

Thus spake the Muse, and spake it with a smile,
That seem'd at once to pity and revile.
And to her thus, raising his thoughtful head,
The melancholy Cowley said—
"Ah, wanton foe! dost thou upbraid
"The ills which thou thyself hast made?
"When in the cradle innocent I lay,
"Thou, wicked spirit! stolest me away,
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$"And my abused soul didst bear
"Into thy new-found worlds, I know not where,
"Thy golden Indies in the air;