But ftill how good must be that fair one's mind, The mufe her company, good-fense her guide, And makes the warbling nightingale her choice, Το To a LADY, IN ANSWER TO A LETTER WROTE IN A VERY FINE HAND. HILST well wrote lines our wond'ring eyes WHI command, The beauteous work of CHLOE's artful hand, Throughout the finish'd piece we see display'd See with what art the fable currents ftain The ivory plain of lovely CHLOE's neck: The yielding paper's pure, but vacant breast, By her fair hand and flowing pen imprest, At touch more animated grows, every And with new life and new ideas glows, Fresh beauties from the kind defiler gains, Wound full as fure, and at a distance too: Arm❜d with your feather'd weapons in your hanc From pole to pole you fend your great command To diftant climes in vain the lover flies, Your pen o'ertakes him, if he 'fcapes your eyes; Beauty's a fhort-liv'd blaze, a fading flow'r, And eyes unborn, like ours, be charm'd by you. How How oft do I admire with fond delight The curious piece, and wish like you to write! To copy PAULO's ftroke, or TITIAN's fire: And I in vain to imitate them try ; Believe me, fair, I'm practising this art, To fteal your hand, in hopes to fteal your heart. то TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LADY MARGARET CAVENDISH HARLEY*, PRESENTED WITH A COLLECTION OF POEMS. T HE tuneful throng was ever beauty's care, And verse a tribute facred to the fair; Hence in each age the lovelieft nymph has been, By undisputed right, the mufes queen ; Her smiles have all poetic bofoms fir'd, And patronis'd the verse themselves inspir'd: LESBIA Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley was the only daughter and heiress of Edward Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, by his wife the Lady Henrietta Cavendish, fole daughter and heiress of John Holles Duke of Newcastle. She married William the fecond Duke of Portland July 11, 1734, who died on the ift of May, 1762; her Grace furviving him, departed this life at her feat at Bulftrode, on Monday the 18th of June 1785, leaving behind her that famous museum, replete with works in the fine arts and a most extenfive collection of natural history, which, with no less induftry than judgment, and at an expence which could be only fupported by her princely fortune, fhe had been the greatest part of her life collecting; but this collection, however |