Though men would find such mortal feuds

In sharing of their public goods.

'Twould put them to more charge of lives,
Than they're supply'd with now by wives:
Until they graze, and wear their clothes,
As beasts do, of their native growths';
For simple wearing of their horns,

Will not suffice to serve their turns.

For what can we pretend t' inherit,
Unless the marriage-deed will bear it?
Could claim no right to lands or rents,
But for our parents' settlements';
Had been but younger sons o' the earth,
Debarr'd it all, but for our birth;

What honors, or estates of peers

Cou'd be preserv'd, but by their heirs;

Their right and title, but the banes?
What crowns could be hereditary,

If greatest monarchs did not marry,

And with their consorts consummate '' - * 845
Their weightiest interest of state;
For all the amours of princes are
But guarantees of peace or war.

い

Or what but marriage has a charm

The rage of empires to disarm?

850

Make blood and desolation cease,

And fire and sword unite in peace,

When all their fierce contests for forage
Conclude in articles of marriage?
Nor does the genial bed provide

Less for the int'rests of the bride;
Who else had not the least pretence
T'as much as due benevolence;
Could no more title take upon her
To virtue, quality, and honor,
Than ladies-errant, unconfin'd,

And feme-coverts to all mankind.

All women would be of one piece,
The virtuous matron, and the miss;

855

860

The nymphs of chaste Diana's train,
The same with those in Lewkner's Lane,
But for the difference marriage makes

:865

'Twixt wives, and ladies of the lakes:

Besides, the joys of place and birth,

The sex's paradise on earth;

A privilege so sacred held,

That none will to their mothers yield;

870

But rather than not go before,
"Abandon heaven at the door.
And if th' indulgent law allows
A greater freedom to the spouse;
The reason is, because the wife
Runs greater hazards of her life;
Is trusted with the form and matter

875

Of all mankind, by careful Nature.

880

Where man brings nothing but the stuff

She frames the wondrous fabric of:

Who, therefore, in a strait, may freely

But rather (sometimes) serves t' improve.

For as, in running, ev'ry space

895

Is but between two legs a race.

In which both do their uttermost

To get before and win the post:

Yet when they're at the race's ends,

They're still as kind and constant friends, 900

And to relieve their weariness,

By turns give one another ease;
So all these false alarms of strife
Between the husband and the wife,
And little quarrels, often prove

To be but new recruits of love:

When those wh' are always kind or coy, w
In time must either tire or cloy.

905

Nor are their loudest clamours more,

Than as they're relish'd, sweet or sour:

910

Like music that proves bad or good,
According as 'tis understood.

In all amours a lover burns,

With frowns, as well as smiles, by turns;

And hearts have been as oft with sullen,

915

As charming looks, surpris'd and stolen.

Then why should more bewitching clamour,

Some lovers not as much enamour;

For discords make the sweetest airs,

And curses are a kind of prayers:

920

Too slight alloys for all those grand
Felicities by marriage gain'd.

To guard that gentle heart from wrong,
That to his friend is glad to pass

Itself away, and all it has ;

And, like an anchorite, gives over

This world, for th' heaven of a lover?

I grant, quoth she, there are some few Who take that course, and find it true;

935

But millions whom the same does sentence
To Heaven b' another way, repentance.

940

Love's arrows are but shot at rovers,

Though all they hit they turn to lovers:

And all the weighty consequents

Depend upon more blind events,