From plains and peaceful cots I send
The humble wishes of a friend:
May love still spread his silken wing,
And life to you be ever spring:
May virtue guide you with her clue,
Life's mazy path to wander thro';
And may your offspring the blest tract pursue:
On you may Heav'n benignly smile,
And inward peace external cares beguile;
Long may you live supremely blest,
Then die, and be a Saviour's guest.
The wish is o'er, permit me to descend
To the familiar converse of a friend.
Well, you've done right to get a wife,
For change the comfort is of life;
Besides, I've read in ancient story,
A virtuous wife's a crown of glory:
And yet 'tis true that some adorn
Their husband's brows with crown of horn:
The wisest man on earth we find
Was partial to the female kind,
Till he was trick'd a thousand ways,
(But men are wiser now-a-days)
Which made the honest Jew exclaim,
They were all vanities, and vain:
His father, you remember David,
Who tore Saul's skirt, and ran away with't,
He also had, (tho' lov'd of God)
Plurality of wives allow'd:
But since polygamy's abolish'd,
The wives are chaste, the husbands polish'd
Since with plagiary you've tax'd me,
And never since for pardon ask'd me,
To prove my false accuser guilty,
Repeat his borrow'd lines I will t'ye:
"No goose that swims, but soon or late"
"Will find some gander for a mate."
You'll find this couplet, I'll engage,
In Wife of Bath, the hundredth page,
Volume the second,---works of Pope---
Brother, you're now convinc'd, I hope.
However, what you prophesied
About the goose, is verified;
She's slipt her neck in marriage noose,
And owns a sov'reign Lord, and goose.
Adieu, Mon Cher Ami; the Muse
Begs you her freedom will excuse.