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ODE L.

CONTRAST

To the Foregoing

ODE TO WISDOM.

Now see my Goddess, earthly born, With smiling looks, and sparkling eyes, And with a bloom that shames the morn New risen in the eastern skies!

Furnish'd from Nature's boundless store,
A nymph of pleasure's laughing train,
Stranger to all the wise explore,

She proves all far-sought knowledge vain,

Untaught as Venus, when she found
Herself first floating on the sea,
And laughing begg'd the Tritons round
For shame to look some other way:

And unaccomplish'd all as Eve

In the first morning of her life,
When Adam blush'd, and ask'd her leave
To take her hand, and call her Wife.

Yet there is something in her face,

Tho' she's unread in Plato's lore, Might bring even Plato to disgrace, For leaving precepts taught before:

And there is magic in her eye,

Tho' she's unskill'd to conjure down The pale moon from th' affrighted sky, Would draw Endymion from the moon :

And there are words that she can speak,
Most easy to be understood,

More sweet than all the heathen Greek
By Helen talk'd, when Paris woo'd:

And she has raptures in her power,
More worth than all the flattering claim
Of learning's unsubstantial dower,
In present praise, or future fame.

Let me but kiss her soft warm hand,
And let me whisper in her ear

What Knowledge would not understand,
And Wisdom would disdain to hear.

And let her listen to my tale,

And let one smiling blush arise, Best omen that my vows prevail ! I'll scorn the scorn of all the wise.

ODES.

CLASS THE SECOND.

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