Even in the happiest choice, where favouring heaven

Has equal love and easy fortune given,

Think not, the husband gain'd, that all is done;
The prize of happiness must still be won:
And oft, the careless find it to their cost,
The lover in the husband may be lost;
The graces might alone his heart allure,
They, and the virtues meeting, must secure.

Let even your prudence wear the pleasing dress-
Of care, for him, and anxious tenderness.
From kind concern about his weal or woe,
Let each domestic duty seem to flow.,
The household sceptre if he bids you bear,
Make it your pride his servant to appear:
Endearing thus the common acts of life,
The mistress still shall charm him in the wife :
And wrinkled age shall unobserved come on,
Before his eye perceives one beauty gone:
Even o'er your cold, your ever-sacred urn,
His constant flame shall unextingujsh'd burn.
Thus I, Belinda, would your charms improve,
And form your heart to all the arts of love.
The task were harder to secure my own
Against the power of those already known:

For well you twist the secret chains that bind
With gentle force the captivated mind,
Skill'd every soft attraction to employ,
Each flattering hope, and each alluring joy.
I own your genius; and from you receive
The rules of pleasing, which to you I give.

2

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE,

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

London. 1694-1773.

Lord Chesterfield has been too much praised by dancing masters, who cannot read him; and too much blamed by rigid moralists, who cannnot understand him. His great penetration led him to look deeply into the character of mankind; and the picture that he draws of it, is so like, that it cannot but provoke a melanchoiy smile. To a very young mind, such a representation may be prejudicial, as tending to destroy that ingenuousness in the outset of life, which dies naturally and gradually by intercourse with the world. A man, therefore, 'who should begin by acting upon Lord Chesterfield's principles, would now become a consummate hypocrite; and he who should not acknowledge the truth of his Lordship's observations in the progress of experience, would be a fool; and thus at thirty we should acquiesce in what might shock us at eighteen.

Lord Chesterfield's attempts to lay down rules for behaviour, are vain attempts; the cautions which he gives upon

P. D. STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

53

points of more serious importance, are those of a father, anxious to pour the benefit of his experience upon his son; an attempt perhaps equally fruitless.

He was among the first wits of his time, and filled high political situations.

Advice to a Lady in Autumn.

ASSE's milk, half a pint, take at seven, or before;
Then sleep for an hour or two, and no more.
At nine stretch your arms, and O! think when

alone,

There's no pleasure in bed.-Mary, bring me my?

gown:

Slip on that ere you rise; let your caution be such; Keep all cold from your breast, there's already too much.

Your pinners set right, your twicher ty'd on, Your prayers at an end, and your breakfast quite done;

Retire to some author improving and gay, And with sense like your own, set your mind for the day.

At twelve you may walk, for at this time of

year,

The sun, like your wit, is as mild as 'tis clear:

54 P. D. STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD."

But mark in the meadows the ruin of time;
Take the hint, and let life be improved in its prime.
Return not in haste, nor of dressing take heed;
For beauty like yours, no assistance can need.
With an appetite, thus, down to dinner you sit,
Where the chief of the feast, is the flow of your

wit:

Let this be indulged, and let laughter go round; As it pleases your mind, to your health 'twill redound.

After dinner two glasses at least, I approve;

Name the first to the king, and the last to your

love :

Thus cheerful with wisdom, with innocence gay, And calm with your joys gently glide through the

day.

The dews of the evening most carefully shun;
Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.

Then in chat, or at play, with a dance, or a song, Let the night, like the day, pass with pleasure along.

All cares, but of love, banish far from your mind ; And those you may end, when you please to be

kind.