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 wifest Fool much Time has ever made.
From loveless youth to unrefpected age,
No Paffion gratify'd, except her Rage.
So much the Fury ftill out-ran the Wit,

The Pleasure mifs'd her, and the Scandal hit.

120

125

Who breaks with her, provokes Revenge from Hell,
But he's a bolder man who dares be well.

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;

130

Love, if it makes her yield, must make her hate :
Superiors death! and Equals? what a Curfe; 135
But an Inferior not dependant? worse.

Offend her, and she knows not to forgive;
Oblige her, and she'll hate you while you live:
But die, and fhe'll auore you Then the Buft
And Temple rife then fall again to duft.

140

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 122. in the MS.

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

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 distress
Sick of herself thro' very felfishness !

Atoffa, curs'd with ev'ry granted pray'r,
Childless 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,
Asks no firm hand, and no unerring line;
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?

145

150

155

VER. 150. Or wanders, Heav'n-directed, etc.] Alluding and referring to the great principle of his Philofophy, 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.

VER. 156. Chameleons who can paint in white and black ? ] There is one thing that does a very distinguished honour to the accuracy of our poet's judgment, of which, in the

VARIATIONS.

VER. 148. in the MS.

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

If any part fhould wander to the poor.

"Yet Chloe fure was form'd without a spot " Nature in her then err'd not, but forgot.

course of these obfervations, 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 illuftrate the particular point he is upon, but to establish the general principles he would enforce; fo, in the instance 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 purpose, all Nature could not have supplied fuch another illustration as this of the Chameleon; for though it instantaneously affumes much of the colour of every subject on which it chances to be placed, yet, as the most accurate Virtuofi have observed, it has two native colours of its own, which (like the two ruling paffions in the Sex) amidst all these changes are never totally discharged, but, though often difcoloured by the neighbourhood of adventitious ones, ftill make the foundation, and give a tincture to all those which, from thence, it occafionally affumes.

VER. 157. "Yet Chloe fure, etc.] The purpose of the poet in this Character is important: It is to fhew that the politic or prudent government of the paffions is not enough to make a Character amiable, nor even to secure 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, though 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.

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

Say, what can Chloe want?"-She wants a Heart. She speaks, behaves, and acts just as fhe 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 she fees her Friend in deep despair,
Obferves how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair. 170
Forbid it Heav'n, a Favour or a Debt
She e'er fhould cancel but fhe may forget.
Safe is your fecret ftill in Chloe's ear;
But none of Chloe's fhall you ever hear.
Of all her Dears fhe 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

175

Would you too be wise ? Then never break your heart when Chloe dies. 180

One certain Portrait may (I grant) be seen, Which Heav'n has varnish'd out, and made a Queen :

VER. 181. One certain Portrait - the fame for ever! -] This is entirely 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 ver. 78. 1 Dialogue 1738.

THE SAME FOR EVER! and déserib'd by all
With Truth and Goodnefs, as with Crown and Ball.
Poets heap Virtues, Painters Gems at will,

185

And shew their zeal, and hide their want of skill.
"Tis well but, Artists! who can paint or write,
To draw the Naked is your true delight.
That Robe of Quality so struts and swells,
None fee what Parts of Nature it conceals:
Th' exactest traits of Body or of Mind,
We owe to models of an humbler kind.

If QUEENSBERRY to ftrip there's no compelling,
"Tis from a Handmaid we must take a Helen.

190

From Peer or Bishop 'tis no eafy thing

195

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

But grant, in Public Men fometimes are shown,

A Woman's feen in Private life aloné:

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

200

VER. 199. But grant, in Public, etc.] In the former Editions, between this and the foregoing lines, a want of Connexion might be perceived, occafioned by the omiffion of certain Examples and Illuftrations to the Maxims laid down; and though fome of these have fince been found, viz. the Characters of Philomèdé, Atoffa, Chloe, and fomé verfes fol

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 199. in the MS.

Fain I'd in Fulvia spy the tender Wife;
I cannot prove it on her, for my life: