A Female Character

The charms of Sophia let envy compare, And envy must own her the first of the fair; The beauty of person time injures we find, No charms can be lasting but those of the mind; Good nature, good sense, and fair virtue and truth, She holds by a tenure not bounded by youth:

The wrinkles of age when beheld on the wise, Only prove they are ripening apace for the skies; There beauty will bloom, nor be injur'd by time, And virtue must flourish in that happy clime.

'Tis PERFECTION alone admission there gains, Where love can be constant without marriage chains; There streams of pure pleasure perrenial shall flow, And Sophia unchang'd—will be what she is now.