Classic Poem

Among the numbers who employ
Their tongues and pens to give you joy,
Dear Harley, generous youth, admit
What friendship dictates more than wit.

Forgive me, when I fondly thought
(By frequent observation taught)
A spirit so informed as yours
Could never prosper in amours.
The god of wit, and light, and arts,
With all acquired and natural parts,
Whose harp could savage beasts enchant,
Was an unfortunate gallant.
Had Bacchus after Daphne reeled,
The nymph had soon been brought to yield;
Or, had embroidered Mars pursued,
The nymph would ne'er have been a prude.
Ten thousand footsteps, full in view,
Mark out the way where Daphne flew.
For such is all the sex's flight,
They fly from learning, wit, and light:
They fly, and none can overtake
But some gay coxcomb, or a rake.

How then, dear Harley, could I guess
That you should meet, in love, success?
For, if those ancient tales be true,
Phoebus was as beautiful as you:
Yet Daphne never slacked her pace,
For wit and learning spoilt his face.
And, since the same resemblance held
In gifts, wherein you both excelled,
I fancied every nymph would run
From you, as from Latona's son.

Then where, said I, shall Harley find
A virgin of superior mind,
With wit and virtue to discover,
And pay the merit of her lover?

This character shall Cavendish claim,
Born to retrieve her sex's fame.
The chief among that glittering crowd,
Of titles, birth, and fortune proud,
(As fools are insolent and vain)
Madly aspired to wear her chain:
But Pallas, guardian of the maid,
Descending to her charge's aid,
Held out Medusa's snaky locks,
Which stupefied them all to stocks.
The nymph, with indignation, viewed
The dull, the noisy, and the lewd:
For Pallas, with celestial light,
Had purified her mortal sight;
Showed her the virtues all combined,
Fresh blooming, in young Harley's mind.

Terrestrial nymphs, by formal arts,
Display their various nets for hearts:
Their looks are all by method set,
When to be prude, and when coquette;
Yet, wanting skill and power to choose,
Their only pride is to refuse.
But, when a goddess would bestow
Her love on some bright youth below,
Round all the earth she casts her eyes;
And then, descending from the skies,
Makes choice of him she fancies best,
And bids the ravished youth be blessed.

Thus the bright empress of the morn
Chose, for her spouse, a mortal born:
The goddess made advances first,
Else what aspiring hero durst?
Though, like a virgin of fifteen,
She blushes when by mortals seen;
Still blushes, and with speed retires,
When Sol pursues her with his fires.

Diana thus, heaven's chastest queen,
Struck with Endymion's graceful mien,
Down from her silver chariot came,
And to the shepherd owed her flame.

Thus Cavendish, as Aurora bright,
And chaster than the Queen of Night,
Descended from her sphere to find
A mortal of superior kind.