BALLAD. (Lovely woman, pride of nature)

Lovely woman, pride of nature, Good, and sweet, and kind, and fair, Than man a higher stile of creature, Perfect as celestials are:

See Myra come, like stately Juno, Ever fair and ever young, Completely like, as I and you know, For Myra, like Juno, has a tongue.

Young Celia's charms that beam so sweetly, To paint ah what can words avail, She's Venus' self, and so completely, That Celia is, like Venus, frail.

To woo the charming Gloriana, Audacity would stand afraid; She chaste and icy as Diana, And, like Diana, an old maid.

Thus women boast a near relation, 'Tis plain to the celestial race, Thus we of their divine creation A family resemblance trace:

If then some faults of this complexion Like spots upon that sun, their fame, Rust this same model of perfection, The stars, not women, are to blame.