The daily Anodyne, and nightly Draught,

To kill those foes to Fair ones, Time and Thought
Woman and Fool are two hard things to hit ;
For true No-meaning puzzles more than Wit.

But what are these to great Atoffa's mind? 115 Scarce once herself, by turns all Womankind! Who, with herself, or others, from her birth

Finds all her life one warfare

upon earth:

Shines, in expofing Knaves, and painting Fools,
Yet is, whate'er fhe hates and ridicules.

No Thought advances, but her Eddy Brain
Whisks it about, and down it

goes again.

Full fixty years the World has been her Trade,

The wifeft Fool much Time has ever made.
From loveless youth to unrespected age,
No Paffion gratify'd except her Rage.

So much the Fury ftill out-ran the Wit,

120

125

The Pleasure mifs'd her, and the Scandal hit. Who breaks with her, provokes Revenge from Hell, But he's a bolder man who dares be well.

130

Her ev'ry turn with Violence purfu'd,
Nor more a storm her Hate than gratitude:
To that each Paffion turns, or foon or late;
Love, if it makes her yield, must make her hate :

VARIATIONS.

After 122. in the MS.

Opprefs'd with wealth and wit, abundance fad!
One makes her poor, the other makes her mad.

Superiors? death! and Equals? what a curse; 135 But an Inferior not dependant? worse.

140

Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live :
But die, and fhe'll adore you-Then the Bust
And Temple rife-then fall again to duft.
Laft night, her Lord was all that's good and great;
A Knave this morning, and his Will a Cheat.
Strange! by the Means defeated of the Ends,
By Spirit robb'd of Pow'r, by Warmth of Friends,
By Wealth of Follow'rs! without one diftrefs 145
Sick of herself thro' very selfishness !

Atoffa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r,
Childlefs with all her Children, wants an Heir.
To Heirs unknown defcends th' unguarded ftore,
Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, to the Poor.

Pictures like thefe, dear Madam, to defign,
Afks no firm hand, and no unerring line;

150

VER. 150. Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, etc.] Alluding and referring to the great principle of his Philosophy, which he never lofes fight of, and which teaches, that Providence is inceffantly turning the evils arifing from the follies and vices of men to general good.

This Death decides, nor lets the bleffing fall
On any one she hates, but on them all.
Curs'd chance! this only could afflict her more,

If any part fhould wander to the poor.

155

Some wand'ring touches, fome reflected light,
Some flying ftroke alone can hit 'em right:
For how should equal Colours do the knack?
Chameleons who can paint in white and black?
"Yet Chloe fure was form'd without a spot"-
Nature in her then err'd not, but forgot.

VER. 156. Chameleons who can paint in white and black ?] There is one thing that does a very diftinguished honour to the accuracy of our poet's judgment, of which, in the courfe of these observations, I have given many inftances, and shall here explain in what it confifts; it is this, that the Similitudes in his didactic poems, of which he is not fparing, and which are all highly poetical, are always chofen with fuch exquifite difcernment of Nature, as not only to illustrate the particular point he is upon, but to establish the general principles he would inforce ; fo, in the inftance before us, he compares the inconftancy and contradiction in the Characters of Women, to the change of colours in the Chameleon; yet 'tis nevertheless the great principle of this poem to fhew that the general Characteristic of the Sex, as to the Ruling Paffions, which they all have, is more uniform than that in Man: Now for this purpofe, all Nature could not have fupplied fuch another illuftration as this of the Chameleon; for tho' it inftantaneously affumes much of the colour of every subject on which it chances to be placed, yet, as the most accurate Virtuofi have obferved, it has two native colours of its own, which (like the two ruling paffions in the Sex) amidst all thefe changes are never totally discharged, but, tho' often difcoloured by the neighbourhood of adventitious ones, fill make the foundation, and give a tincture to all those which, from thence, it occafionally aflumes.

VER. 157. "Yet Chloe fure, etc.] The purpofe of the poet in this Character is important: It is to fhew that the politic or

"With ev'ry pleafing, ev'ry prudent part,

66 Say, what can Chloe want ?"-She wants a Heart.
She speaks, behaves, and acts juft as the ought; 161.
But never, never, reach'd one gen'rous Thought.
Virtue fhe finds too painful an endeavour,
Content to dwell in Decencies for ever.
So very reasonable, fo unmov'd,

As never yet to love, or to be lov'd.

165

She, while her Lover pants upon her breast,
Can mark the figures on an Indian chest ;
And when the fees her Friend in deep defpair,
Obferves how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 170
Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt

175

She e'er should cancel-but she may forget.
Safe is your Secret ftill in Chloe's ear;
But none of Chloe's fhall you ever hear.
Of all her Dears she never flander'd one,
But cares not if a thousand are undone.
Would Chloe know if you're alive or dead?
She bids her Footman put it in her head.
Chloe is prudent-Would you too be wife?
Then never break your heart when Chloe dies. 180

prudent government of the paffions is not enough to make a Character amiable, nor even to fecure it from being ridiculous, if the end of that government be not purfued, which is the free exercife of the focial appetites after the selfish ones have been fubdued; for that if, tho' reafon govern, the heart be never confulted, we intereft ourselves as little in the fortune of fuch a Character, as in any of the foregoing, which paffions or caprice drive up and down at random.

One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen, Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen: THE SAME FOR EVER! and defcrib'd by all With Truth and Goodness, as with Crown and Ball. Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will, 185 And fhow their zeal, and hide their want of skill. 'Tis well-but, Artifts! who can paint or write, To draw the Naked is your true delight. That Robe of Quality so struts and fwells,

None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals;

Th' exacteft traits of Body or of Mind,

190

We owe to models of an humble kind.

If QUEENSBERRY to ftrip there's no compelling,
"Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen.
From Peer or Bishop 'tis no eafy thing

To draw the man who loves his God, or King:
Alas! I copy, (or my draught would fail)
From honeft Mah'met, or plain Parson Hale.

195

VER. 181. One certain Portrait-the fame for ever!] This is intirely ironical, and conveys under it this general moral truth, that there is, in life, no fuch thing as a perfect Character; fo that the fatire falls not on any particular Character, or Station, but on the Character-maker only. See Note on 78. 1 Dialogue 1738.

VER. 198. Mab'met, fervant to the late King.

VARIATIONS.

After 199. in the MS.

Fain I'd in Fulvia spy the tender Wife;

I cannot prove it on her, for my life: