Others for language all their care express, And value books, as women, men, for dress: Their praise is still,1 the style is excellent; The sense, they humbly take upon content. Words are like leaves; and where they most abound,

Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found. False eloquence, like the prismatic glass, 311 Its gaudy colours spreads on every place; The face of nature we no more survey, All glares alike, without distinction gay: But true expression, like th' unchanging sun, Clears and improves whate'er it shines upon, It gilds all objects, but it alters none. Expression is the dress of thought, and still Appears more decent, as more suitable; A vile conceit in pompous words expressed, Is like a clown in regal purple dressed :

1 always

317

321

2

For different styles with different subjects sort, As several garbs with country, town, and

court.

Some by old words to fame have made pretence,

Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their

sense;

325 Such laboured nothings, in so strange a style, Amaze th' unlearn'd, and make the learned smile.

Unlucky, as Fungoso in the play,

These sparks with awkward vanity display
What the fine gentleman wore yesterday; 330
And but so mimic ancient wits at best,
As apes our grandsires, in their doublets
dressed.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold;
Alike fantastic, if too new, or old:

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

336

But most by numbers 2 judge a poet's song; And smooth or rough, with them, is right or

Her voice is all these tuneful fools admire; Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, Not mend their minds; as some to church

repair,

345

350

(That e'en in slumber caused her cheek to glow)

Seemed to her ear his winning lips to lay, 25
And thus in whispers said, or seemed to say:
"Fairest of mortals, thou distinguished care
Of thousand bright inhabitants of air!
If e'er one vision touched thy infant thought,
Of all the nurse and all the priest have taught,
Of airy elves by moonlight shadows seen, 31
The silver token, and the circled green,"
Or virgins visited by angel powers,
With golden crowns and wreaths of heavenly
flowers ;6

34

Hear and believe! thy own importance know, Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Some secret truths, from learned pride concealed,

To maids alone and children are revealed. What though no credit doubting wits may give?

40

The fair and innocent shall still believe. Know, then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly, The light militia of the lower sky.

These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, Hang o'er the box, and hover round the Ring.7 Think what an equipage thou hast in air, 45 And view with scorn two pages and a chair.8

1 to summon a servant 2 a repeater 3 The lines between brackets were not in the first version of the poem. a fairy gift 5 where fairies danced 6 as St. Cecilia was 7 a fashionable drive in Hyde Parka sedan chair

55

Her joy in gilded chariots, when alive,
And love of ombre,1 after death survive.
For when the fair in all their pride expire,
To their first elements their souls retire:
The sprites of fiery termagants in flame
Mount up, and take a salamander's name. 60
Soft yielding minds to water glide away,
And sip, with nymphs, their elemental tea.
The graver prude sinks downward to a gnome,
In search of mischief still on earth to roam.
The light coquettes in sylphs aloft repair, 65
And sport and flutter in the fields of air.

"Know further yet: whoever fair and chaste Rejects mankind, is by some sylph embraced; For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.

70

Teach infant cheeks a bidden blush to know, And little hearts to flutter at a beau.

90

"Oft when the world imagine women stray, The sylphs through mystic mazes guide their way,

Through all the giddy circle they pursue,
And old impertinence expel by new.
What tender maid but must a victim fall 95
To one man's treat, but for another's ball?
When Florio speaks, what virgin could with-
stand,

If gentle Damon did not squeeze her hand?
With varying vanities, from every part,
They shift the moving toyshop of their heart;
Where wigs with wigs, with sword-knots
sword-knots strive,

ΙΟΙ

Beaux banish beaux, and coaches coaches drive.
This erring mortals levity may call;
Oh, blind to truth! the sylphs contrive it all.

"Of these am I, who thy protection claim,
A watchful sprite, and Ariel is my name. 100
Late, as I ranged the crystal wilds of air,
In the clear mirror of thy ruling star
I saw, alas! some dread event impend,
Ere to the main 1 this morning sun descend,
But Heaven reveals not what, or how, or
where.

III

But all the vision vanished from thy head. And now, unveiled, the toilet stands displayed,

121

125

Each silver vase in mystic order laid.
First, robed in white, the nymph intent adores,
With head uncovered, the cosmetic powers.
A heavenly image in the glass appears,
To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;
Th' inferior priestess,2 at her altar's side,
Trembling begins the sacred rites of pride.
Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear;
From each she nicely culls with curious toil,
And decks the goddess with the glittering
spoil.

1 the ocean 2 her maid

132

This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,
And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.
The tortoise here and elephant unite, 135
Transformed to combs, the speckled, and the
white.

Here files of pins extend their shining rows,
Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billets-doux
Now awful beauty puts on all its arms;
The fair each moment rises in her charms, 140
Repairs her smiles, awakens every grace,
And calls forth all the wonders of her face;
Sees by degrees a purer blush arise,
And keener lightnings quicken in her eyes.
The busy sylphs surround their darling care,
These set the head, and those divide the hair,
Some fold the sleeve, whilst others plait the
gown;

147

And Betty's praised for labours not her own.

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, And beauty draws us with a single hair.

Th' adventurous baron 1 the bright locks admired;

31

He saw, he wished, and to the prize aspired.
Resolved to win, he meditates the way,
By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when success a lover's toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.

For this, ere Phoebus rose, he had implored
Propitious Heaven, and every power adored,
But chiefly Love; to Love an altar built,
Of twelve vast French romances, neatly gilt.
There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves;
With tender billets-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three amorous sighs to raise the
fire.

40

[But now secure the painted vessel glides, The sunbeams trembling on the floating tides;

While melting music steals upon the sky,
And softened sounds along the waters die; 50
Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently
play,

Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay. All but the sylph — with careful thoughts oppressed,

Th' impending woe sat heavy on his breast. He summons straight his denizens of air; 55 The lucid squadrons round the sails repair; Soft o'er the shrouds aërial whispers breathe, That seemed but zephyrs to the train beneath. Some to the sun their insect wings unfold, Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold; Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, Their fluid bodies half dissolved in light. Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew, Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies, Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes, While every beam new transient colours flings,

65

Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.

Amid the circle, on the gilded mast,

1 Lord Petre 2 Here begins the second addition to the original version.