"
'Tis true I am given to range,
If I rightly remember,
I've kiss'd a good number,
But there's pleasure at least in a change.

6.

I ne'er will advance,
By the rules of romance,
To humour a whimsical fair,
Though a smile may delight,
Yet a _frown_ wont _affright_,
Or drive me to dreadful despair.

7.

Whilst my blood is thus warm,
I ne'er shall reform,
To mix in the Platonist's school;
Of this I am sure,
Was my passion so pure,
_My mistress_ must think me _a fool_.

8.

Though the kisses are sweet,
Which voluptuously meet,
Of kissing I ne'er was so fond,
As to make me forget,
Though our lips oft have met,
That still there was _something beyond_.

9.

And if I should shun,
Every _woman_ for _one_,
Whose _image_ must fill my whole breast;
Whom I must _prefer_,
And _sigh_ but for _her_,
What an _insult_ 'twould be to the _rest_!

10.

Now, Strephon, good bye,
I cannot deny,
_Your passion_ appears most absurd,
Such _love_ as you plead,
Is _pure_ love indeed,
For it _only_ consists in the _word_.

* * * * *

THE CORNELIAN.

No specious splendour of this stone,
Endears it to my memory ever,
With lustre _only once_ it shone,
But blushes modest as the giver.

2.

Some who can sneer at friendship's ties,
Have for my weakness oft reprov'd me,
Yet still the simple gift I prize,
For I am sure, the giver lov'd me.

3.

He offered it with downcast look,
As _fearful_ that I might refuse it,
I told him when the gift I took,
My _only fear_ should be to lose it.

4.

This pledge attentively I view'd,
And _sparkling_ as I held it near,
Methought one drop the stone bedew'd,
And ever since _I've lov'd a tear_.

5.

Still to adorn his humble youth,
Nor wealth nor birth their treasures yield,
But he who seeks the flowers of truth,
Must quit the garden for the field.

6.

'Tis not the plant uprear'd in sloth,
Which beauty shews, and sheds perfume,
The flowers which yield the most of both,
In nature's wild luxuriance bloom.

7.

Had Fortune aided nature's care,
For once forgetting to be blind,
_His_ would have been an ample share,
If well proportioned to his mind.

8.

But had the Goddess clearly seen,
His form had fixed her fickle breast,
_H