A fate no lover can divert

With all his caution, wit, and art:

For 'tis in vain to think to guess

At women by appearances,

That paint and patch their imperfections
Of intellectual complexions,

725

And daub their tempers o'er with washes

As artificial as their faces;

730

Wear under vizard-masks their talents,
And mother-wits before their gallants:
Until they're hamper'd in the noose,
Too fast to dream of breaking loose;

Until the wretch is glad to wave
His lawful right, and turn her flave;
Finds all his having and his holding

Reduc'd t' eternal noise and scolding;

The conjugal petard, that tears

745

Down all portcullices of ears,

And makes the volly of one tongue

For all their leathern fhields too strong;
When only arm'd with noise and nails,
The female filkworms ride the males,
Transform 'em into rams and goats,
Like Syrens, with their charming notes;
Sweet as a screech-owl's ferenade,
Or those enchanting murmurs made

By th' husband mandrake, and the wife,
Both bury'd, like themselves, alive.

Quoth he, these reasons are but strains
Of wanton, over-heated brains,

750

755

Which ralliers in their wit or drink
Do rather wheedle with, than think.
Man was not man in paradise,
Until he was created twice,

And had his better half, his bride,
Carv'd from th' original, his side,
T' amend his natural defects,

And perfect his recruited fex ;

760

765

Enlarge his breed, at once, and leffen
The pains and labour of increafing,

By changing them for other cares,

As by his dry'd-up paps appears.

His body, that stupendous frame,
Of all the world the anagram,

Is of two equal parts compact,

770

In shape and symmetry exact,

Of which the left and female fide

775

Is to the manly right a bride,

Both join'd together with fuch art,

That nothing else but death can part.
Those heav'nly attracts of your's, your eyes,
And face, that all the world furprise,

That dazzle all that look upon ye,

780

And fcorch all other ladies tawny ;
Those ravishing and charming graces,
Are all made up of two half faces
That, in a mathematic line,
Like those in other heav'ns, join ;
Of which, if either grew alone,
'Twould fright as much to look upon :
And so would that sweet bud, your lip,
Without the other's fellowship.
Our nobleft senses act by pairs,
Two eyes to fee, to hear two ears;
Th' intelligencers of the mind,
To wait upon the foul defign'd:

785

790

But those that serve the body alone,
Are single and confin'd to one.

The world is but two parts, that meet
And close at th' equinoctial fit ;

;

795

And fo are all the works of nature,
Stamp'd with her signature on matter;
Which all her creatures, to a leaf,

800

Or smallest blade of grafs, receive.
All which fufficiently declare
How entirely marriage is her care,

The only method that she uses,

In all the wonders the produces;

And those that take their rules from her
Can never be deceiv'd, nor err :

For what secures the civil life,

But pawns of children, and a wife?
That lie, like hostages, at stake,
To pay for all men undertake;

805

810