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No more her hand the glitt'ring jav'lin holds,
But round his neck her eager arms she folds.
Why are our secrets by our blushes shown?
Virgins are virgins still---while 'tis unknown.
Here let her on some flow'ry bank be laid,
Where meeting beaches weave a graceful shade,
Her naked bosom wanton tresses grace,
And glowing expectation paints her face.
O'er her fair limbs a thin loose veil is spread,
Stand off, ye Shepherds! fear Actæon's head;
Let vig'rous Pan th' unguarded minute seize,
And in a shaggy goat the virgin please.
Why are our secrets by our blushes shown?
Virgins are virgins still---while 'tis unknown.
There with just warmth Aurora's passion trace,
Let spreading crimson stain her virgin face:
See Cephalus her wanton airs despise,
While she provokes him with desiring eyes:
To raise his passion she displays her charms,
His modest hand upon her bosom warms;

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Nor looks, nor pray'rs, nor force, his heart persuade,
But with disdain he quits the rosy maid.

Here let dissolving Læda grace the toy,
Warm cheeks and heaving breasts reveal her joy;
Beneath the pressing swan she pants for air,
While with his flutt'ring wings he fans the fair.
There let all-conqu'ring gold exert its pow'r,
And soften Danae in a glitt'ring show'r.

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Would you warn beauty not to cherish pride,
Nor vainly in the treach'rous bloom confide,
On the machine the sage Minerva place,

With lineaments of wisdom mark her face:
See where she lies near some transparent flood,
And with her pipe cheers the resounding wood;
Her image in the floating glass she spies,

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Her bloated cheeks, worn lips, and shrivell'd eyes:
She breaks the guiltless pipe, and with disdain
Its shatter'd ruins flings upon the plain :

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With the loud reed no more her cheeks shall swell;
What, spoil her face! no. Warbling strains farewell.
Shall arts--shall sciences, employ the fair?
Those trifles are beneath Minerva's care.
From Venus let her learn the marry'd life,
And all the virtuous duties of a wife.
Here on a couch extend the Cyprian dame,
Let her eye sparkle with the glowing flame;
The God of War within her clinging arms,
Sinks on her lips and kindles all her charms.
Paint limping Vulcan with a husband's care,
And let his brow the cuckold's honours wear;
Beneath the net the captive lovers place,
Their limbs entangled in a close embrace.
Let these amours adorn the new machine,
And female nature on the piece be seen:
So shall the fair, as long as Fans shall last,
Learn from your bright examples to be chaste,

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BOOK III.

THUS Momus spoke. When sage Minerva rose,
From her sweet lips smooth elocution flows,
Her skilful hand an iv'ry pallet grac'd,
Where shining colours were in order plac'd.
As Gods are bless'd with a superior skill,
And swift as mortal thought perform their will,
Straight she proposes, by her art divine,
To bid the paint express her great design.
Th' assembled Pow'rs consent. She now began,
And her creating pencil stain'd the Fan.

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O'er the fair field trees spread, and rivers flow, Tow'rs rear their heads, and distant mountains grow; Life seems to move within the glowing veins,

And in each face some lively passion reigns.
Thus have I seen woods, hills, and dales, appear,
Flocks graze the plains, birds wing the silent air
In darken'd rooms, where light can only pass
Thro' the small circle of a convex glass;
On the white sheet the moving figures rise,
The forest waves, clouds float along the skies.
She various fables on the piece design'd,
That spoke the follies of the female kind.

The fate of pride in Niobe she drew:

Be wise, ye Nymphs! that scornful vice subdue:
In a wide plain th' imperious mother stood,
Whose distant bounds rose in a winding wood;

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Upon her shoulder flows her mantling hair,
Pride marks her brow, and elevates her air;
A purple robe behind her sweeps the ground,
Whose spacious border golden flow'rs surround:
She made Latona's altars cease to flame,
And of due honours robb'd her sacred name;
To her own charms she bade fresh incense rise,
And adoration own her brighter eyes..

Sev'n daughters from her fruitful loins were born,
Sev'n graceful sons her nuptial bed adorn,
Who, for a mother's arrogant disdain,
Were by Latona's double offspring slain.
Here Phoebus his unerring arrow drew,
And from his rising steed her first-born threw,
His op'ning fingers drop the slacken'd rein,
And the pale corse falls headlong to the plain.
Beneath her pencil here two wrestlers bend,
See, to the grasp their swelling nerves distend,
Diana's arrow joins them face to face,
And death unites them in a strict embrace.
Another here flies trembling o'er the plain;
When Heav'n pursues we shun the stroke in vain.
This lifts his supplicating hands and eyes,

And midst his humble adoration dies.

As from his thigh this tears the barbed dart,
A surer weapon strikes his throbbing heart:
While that to raise his wounded brother tries,
Death blasts his bloom, and locks his frozen eyes.

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The tender sisters bath'd in grief appear,

With sable garments and dishevell❜d hair,
And o'er their gasping brothers weeping stood;
Some with their tresses stopt the gushing blood,
They strive to stay the fleeting life too late,
And in the pious action share their fate.

Now the proud dame, o'ercome by trembling fear,
With her wide robe protects her only care;
To save her only care in vain she tries,

Close at her feet the latest victim dies.

Down her fair cheek the trickling sorrow flows,
Like dewy spangles on the blushing rose;
Fix'd in astonishment she weeping stood,
The plain all purple with her children's blood:
She stiffens with her woes: no more her hair
In easy ringlets wantons in the air;
Motion forsakes her eyes, her veins are dry'd,
And beat no longer with the sanguine tide;
All life is fled, firm marble now she grows,
Which still in tears the mother's anguish shows.
Ye haughty Fair! your painted Fans display,
And the just fate of lofty pride survey;

Tho' lovers oft' extol your beauty's pow'r,
And in celestial similies adore;

Tho' from from your features Cupid borrows arms,

And Goddesses confess inferior charms,

Do not, vain Maid! the flatt'ring tale believe,
Alike thy lovers and thy glass deceive.

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