Page:Poetical Works of John Oldham.djvu/249

Rh Easy are all the bonds that are imposed by thee; Easy as those of lovers are, (If I with aught less pure may thee compare) Nor do they force, but only guide our liberty. By such soft ties are spirits above confined; So gentle is the chain which them to good does bind. Sure card, whereby this frail and tottering bark we steer Through life's tempestuous ocean here; Through all the tossing waves of fear, And dangerous rocks of black despair. Safe in thy conduct, unconcerned we move, Secure from all the threatening storms that blow, From all attacks of chance below, And reach the certain haven of felicity above. Best mistress of our souls! whose charms and beauties last, And are by very age increased, By which all other glories are defaced. Thou'rt thy own dowry, and a greater far Than all the race of womankind e'er brought, Though each of them like the first wife were fraught, And half the universe did for her portion share. That tawdry sex, which giddy senseless we Through ignorance so vainly deify, Are all but glorious brutes when unendowed with thee. 'Tis vice alone, the truer jilt, and worse, In whose enjoyment though we find A flitting pleasure, yet it leaves behind A pain and torture in the mind, And claps the wounded conscience with incurable remorse, Or else betrays us to the great trepans of human kind. 'Tis vice, the greater thraldom, harder drudgery, Whereby deposing reason from its gentle sway, That rightful sovereign which we should obey, We undergo a various tyranny, And to unnumbered servile passions homage pay.