ADVICE TO THE FAIR SEX: On the art of pleasing

Attend ye fair, while I impart The secret how to please; The rudiments of Beauty's art Are short and only these:

All flatt'ry learn betimes to shun, Nor once that syren hear, Know, praise for virtue not your own, Is satire most severe.

Flatt'ry, the Lethe of the soul, No science leaves behind; Worse than the fell Circean bowl, It poisons all the mind.

'Tis not in gold bright sparkling stone, Or brighter sparkling eyes, The value of the fair is known, For these the good despise.

What tho the spring's elysian glow, On either cheek were seen; Or whiter than the virgin snow, Your neck's pellucid skin;

Yet pride or affectation these, Will more than age deform, And envy, worse than pale disease, Shall wither every charm.

True wit exists but with good-nature, The parent of politeness; Let that illumine every feature, And lend the eye its brightness.

Virtue is grace and dignity, 'Tis more than royal blood, A gem the world's too poor to buy— Would you be FAIR—be GOOD!