Or whether lovers falling from her train,
Gave greater price to those she could retain,
Is all unknown ;---but Arabella now

Was kindly listening to a Merchant's vow;
Who offer'd terms so fair, against his love
To strive was folly, so she never strove.
Man in his earlier days we often find
With a too easy and unguarded mind;
But by increasing years and prudence taught,
He grows reserv'd, and locks up every thought;
Not thus the Maiden, for in blooming youth

She hides her thought, and guards the tender truth;
This, when no longer young, no more she hides,
But frankly in the favour'd swain confides :
Man, stubborn Man, is like the growing tree,
That longer standing, still will harder be;
And like its fruit, the Virgin, first austere,
Then kindly softening with the ripening year.

Now was the Lover urgent, and the kind And yielding Lady to his suit inclin'd; "A little time, my friend, is just, is right; "We must be decent in our neighbour's sight:" Still she allow'd him of his hopes to speak, And in compassion took off week by week; Till few remain'd, when, wearied with delay, She kindly meant to take off day by day.

That female Friend who gave our Virgin praise For flying man and all his treacherous ways, Now heard with mingled anger, shame and fear, Of one accepted, and a wedding near;

But she resolv'd again with friendly zeal
To make the Maid her scorn of wedlock feel;
For she was griev'd to find her work undone,
And like a Sister mourn'd the failing Nun.

Why are these gentle Maidens prone to make
Their sister-doves the tempting world forsake?
Why all their triumph when a maid disdains
The tyrant-sex and scorns to wear its chains?
Is it pure joy to see a Sister flown

From the false pleasures they themselves have known?
Or do they, as the call-birds in the cage,

Try, in pure envy, others to engage?

And therefore paint their native woods and groves,
As scenes of dangerous joys and naughty loves?

Strong was the Maiden's hope; her Friend was proud, And had her notions to the world avow'd;

And, could she find the Merchant weak and frail,
With power to prove it, then she must prevail :
For she aloud would publish his disgrace,
And save his victim from a man so base.

When all inquiries had been duly made, Came the kind Friend her burthen to unladeAlas! my dear! not all our care and art Can tread the maze of man's deceitful heart; 'Look not surprise---nor let resentment swell "Those lovely features, all will yet be well;

And thou, from Love's and Man's deceptions free, Wilt dwell in virgin-state, and walk to Heav'n with me,'

The Maiden frown'd, and then conceiv'd "that wives "Could walk as well, and lead as holy lives

"As angry prudes who scorn'd the marriage-chain, "Or luckless maids who sought it still in vain,"

The Friend was vex'd---she paus'd, at length she cried: 'Know your own danger, then your lot decide; • That traitor Beswell, while he seeks your hand,

Has, I affirm, a wanton at command;

A slave, a creature from a foreign place,

The nurse and mother of a spurious race;

Brown, ugly bastards---(Heaven the word forgive
And the deed punish !)---in his cottage live;
To town if business calls him, there he stays
In sinful pleasures wasting countless days;
Nor doubt the facts, for I can witness call
For every crime, and prove them one and all.'

Here ceas'd th' informer; Arabella's look Was like a school-boy's puzzled by his book; Intent she cast her eyes upon the floor, Paus'd---then replied--

"I wish to know no more:

"I question not your motive, zeal or love,

"But must decline such dubious points to prove---
"All is not true, I judge, for who can guess
"Those deeds of darkness men with care suppress?
"He brought a slave perhaps to England's coast,
"And made her free; it is our country's boast!
"And she perchance too grateful---good and ill
"Were sown at first, and grow together still;
"The colour'd infants on the village-green,
"What are they more than we have often seen?

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"Children half-cloth'd who round their village stray, "In sun or rain, now starv'd, now beaten, they "Will the dark colour of their fate betray: "Let us in Christian love for all account, "And then behold to what such tales amount,"

'His heart is evil,' said th' impatient Friend:

My duty bids me try that heart to mend," Replied the Virgin---" We may be too nice, "And lose a soul in our contempt of Vice; "If false the charge, I then shall show regard "For a good man, and be his just reward; "And what for Virtue can I better do, "Than to reclaim him if the charge be true?"

She spoke; nor more her holy work delay'd, Twas time to lend an erring mortal aid; "The noblest way," she judg'd, "a soul to win, "Was with an act of kindness to begin,

"To make the sinner sure, and then t' attack the sin."

* As the Author's purpose in this Tale may be mistaken, he wishes to observe, that conduct like that of the Lady's here described must be meritorious or censurable just as the motives to it are pure or selfish; that these motives may in a great measure be concealed from the mind of the agent; and that we often take credit to our virtue, for actions which spring originally from our tempers, inclinations, or our indifference. It cannot therefore be improper, much less immoral, to give an instance of such self-deception.