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XLIX.

But this is not my maxim: had it been, Some heart aches had been spared me; yet I care not, I would not be a tortoise in his screen [not: Of stubborn shell, which waves and weather wear 'Tis better on the whole to have felt and seen

That which humanity may bear, or bear not: "Twill teach discernment to the sensitive, And not to pour their ocean in a sieve.

L.

Of all the horrid, hideous notes of wo,

Sadder than owl-songs, or the midnight blast, Is that portentious phrase, "I told you so,"

Utter'd by friends, those prophets of the past, Who, 'stead of saying what you now should do, Own they foresaw that you would fall at last, And solace your slight lapse 'gainst "bonos mores." With a long memorandum of old stories.

LI.

The Lady Adeline's serene severity

Was not confined to feeling for her friend, Whose fame she rather doubted with posterity, Unless her habits should begin to mend. But Juan also shared in her austerity,

But mix'd with pity, pure as e'er was penn'd: His inexperience moved her gentle ruth, And (as her junior by six weeks) his youth.

LII.

These forty days' advantage of her years-
And hers were those which can face calculation,
Boldly referring to the list of peers,

And noble births, nor dread the enumerationGave her a right to have maternal fears

For a young gentleman's fit education, Though she was far from that leap-year, whose leap In female dates, strikes time all of a heap.

LIII.

This may be fix'd somewhere before thirty-
Say seven-and-twenty; for I never knew
The strictest in chronology and virtue

Advance beyond, while they could pass for new.
Oh, time! why dost not pause? Thy scythe, so dirty
With rust, should surely cease to hack and hew.
Reset it; shave more smoothly, also slower,
If but to keep thy credit as a mower.

LIV.

But Adeline was far from that ripe age,
Whose ripeness is but bitter at the best:
'Twas rather her experience that made her sage,
For she had seen the world, and stood its test,
As I have said in-I forget what page;

My Muse despises reference, as you have guess'd
By this time: but strike six from seven-and-twenty,
And
you will find her sum of years in plenty.

LV.

At sixteen she came out; presented, vaunted,
She put all coronets into commotion:
At seventeen, too, the world was still enchanted
With the new Venus of their brilliant ocean:
At eighteen, though below her feet still panted
A hecatomb of suitors with devotion,
She had consented to create again
That Adam, call'd "the happiest of men."

LVI.

Since then she had sparkled through three glowing
Admired, adored! but also so correct, [winters,
That she had puzzled all the acutest hinters,
Without the apparel of being circumspect;
They could not even glean the slightest splinters
From off the marble, which had no defect.
She had also snatch'd a moment since her marriage
To bear a son and heir-and one miscarriage.

LVII.

Fondly the wheeling fire-flies flew around her, Those little glitterers of the London night; But none of these possess'd a sting to wound herShe was a pitch beyond a coxcomb's flight. Perhaps she wish'd an aspirant profounder;

But, whatsoe'er she wish'd, she acted right; And whether coldness, pride, or virtue, dignify A woman, so she's good, what does it signify? LVIII.

I hate a motive like a lingering bottle,

Which with the landlord makes too long a stand, Leaving all claretless the unmoisten'd throttle, Especially with politics on hand;

I hate it, as I hate a drove of cattle,

Who whirl the dust as Simooms whirl the sand;

I hate it, as I hate an argument,

A laureate's ode, or servile peer's "content."

LIX.

'Tis sad to hack into the roots of things,
They are so much intertwisted with the earth,
So that the branch a goodly verdure flings,
I reck not if an acorn gave it birth.
To trace all actions to their secret springs
Would make indeed some melancholy mirth:
But this is not at present my concern,
And I refer you to wise Oxenstiern.

LX.

With the kind view of saving an eclat,
Both to the duchess and diplomatist,
The Lady Adeline, as soon's she saw

That Juan was unlikely to resist-
(For foreigners don't know that a faux pas
In England ranks quite on a different list
From those of other lands, unbless'd with juries,
Whose verdict for such sin a certain cure is)-

LXI.

The Lady Adeline resolved to take

Such measures as she thought might best imped The farther progress of this sad mistake. She thought with some simplicity indeed; But innocence is bold even at the stake,

And simple in the world, and doth not need Nor-use those palisades by dames erected, Whose virtue lies in never being detected.

LXII.

It was not that she fear'd the very worst: His grace was an enduring, married man, And was not likely all at once to burst

Into a scene, and swell the client's clan Of Doctors' Commons; but she dreaded first The magic of her grace's talisman, And next a quarrel (as he seem'd to fret) With Lord Augustus Fitz-Plantagenet.

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LXXVII.

"Beatus ille procul!" from "negotiis,"
Saith Horace; the great little poet's wrong;
His other maxim, "Noscitur a sociis,"

Is much more to the purpose of his song;
Though even that were sometimes too ferocious,
Unless good company he kept too long;
But, in his teeth, whate'er their state or station,
Thrice happy they who have an occupation!
LXXVIII.

Adam exchanged his paradise for ploughing;
Eve made up millinery with fig-leaves-
The earliest knowledge from the tree so knowing,
As far as I know, that the church receives:
And since that time, it need not cost much showing,
That many of the ills o'er which man grieves,
And still more women, spring from not employing
Some hours to make the remnant worth enjoying.

LXXIX.

And hence high life is oft a dreary void,

A rack of pleasures, where we must invent A something wherewithal to be annoy'd.

Bards may sing what they please about content; Contented, when translated; means but cloy'd; And hence arise the woes of sentiment, Blue-devils, and blue-stockings, and romances Reduced to practice, and perform'd like dances.

LXXX.

I do declare, upon an affidavit,

Romances I ne'er read like those I have seen; Nor, if unto the world I ever gave it,

Would some believe that such a tale had been: But such intent I never had, nor have it;

Some truths are better kept behind a screen,
Especially when they would look like lies;
I therefore deal in generalities.

LXXXI.

"An oyster may be cross'd in love,"-and why?
Because he mopeth idly in his shell,
And heaves a lonely subterraqueous sigh,
Much as a monk may do within his cell:
And a-propos of monks, their piety

With sloth hath found it difficult to dwell;
Those vegetables of the Catholic creed
Are apt exceedingly to run to seed.

LXXXII.

Oh, Wilberforce! thou man of black renown,
Whose merit none enough can sing or say,
Thou hast struck one immense colossus down,
Thou moral Washington of Africa!

But there's another little thing, I own,

Which you should perpetrate some summer's day, And set the other half of earth to rights:

LXXXIV.

Shut up the world at large; let Bedlam out,
And you will be perhaps surprised to find
All things pursue exactly the same route,
As now with those of soi-disant sound mind.
This I could prove beyond a single doubt,

Were there a jot of sense among mankind; But till that point d'appui is found, alas! Like Archimedes, I .cave earth as 'twas.

LXXXV.

Our gentle Adeline had one defect

Her heart was vacant, though a splendid mansion; Her conduct had been perfectly correct,

As she had seen nought claiming its expansion A wavering spirit may be easier wreck'd,

Because 'tis frailer, doubtless, than a stanch one, But when the latter works its own undoing, Its inner crash is like an earthquake's ruin..

LXXXVI.

She loved her lord, or thought so; but that love
Cost her an effort, which is a sad toil,
The stone of Sysiphus, if once we move

Our feelings 'gainst the nature of the soil.
She had nothing to complain of, or reprove,
No bickerings, no connubial turmoil.
Their union was a model to behold,
Serene and noble,-conjugal but cold.

LXXXVII.

There was no great disparity of years,
Though much in temper; but they never clash'd:
They moved like stars united in their spheres,

Or like the Rhone by Leman's waters wash'd, Where mingled and yet separate appears

The river from the lake, all bluely dash'd Through the serene and placid glassy deep, Which fain would lull its river-child to sleep.

LXXXVIII.

Now, when she once had ta'en an interest
In any thing, however she might flatter
Herself that her intentions were the best,
Intense intentions are a dangerous matter:
Impressions were much stronger than she guess'd,
And gather'd as they run, like growing water,
Upon her mind; the more so, as her breast
Was not at first too readily impress'd.

LXXXIX.

But when it was, she had that lurking demon
Of double nature, and thus doubly named-
Firmness yclept in heroes, kings, and seamen,
That is, when they succeed; but greatly blamed
As obstinacy, both in men and women,

Whene'er their triumph pales, or star is tamed:And 'twill perplex the casuists in morality,

You have freed the blacks-now pray shut up the To fix the due bounds of this dangerous quality.

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