Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/212

 126 Anne Bra dji reefs Works.

But peevifh Malecontent, muling fits,

And by mifpriffions like to loofe her witts .*

If great perfwalions caufe her meet her foe,

In her dull refolution Ihe's fo flow,

To march her pace to fome is greater pain

Then by a quick encounter to be flain.

But be fhe beaten, fhe'l not run away, [25]

She'l firft advife if 't be not beft to ftay.

Now'' let's give cold white filter flegme her right,

So loving unto all Ihe fcorns to light:

If any threaten her, ihe'l in a trice

Convert from water to congealed ice:

Her teeth will chatter, dead and wan's her face,

And 'fore fhe be affaulted, quits the place.

She dares not challeng, if I fpeak amifs.

Nor hath flie wit or heat to blulh at this.

Here's three of you all fee now what you are.

Then yield to me preheminence in war.

Again who fits for learning, fcience, arts?

Who rarifies the intellectual parts :

From whence fine fpirits flow and witty notions :

But tis* not from our dull, flow fifters motions:

Nor fifter fanguine, from thy moderate heat.

Poor fpirits the Liver breeds, which is thy feat.

What comes from thence, my heat refines the fame

And through the arteries fends it o're the frame:

The vital fpirits they're call'd, and well they may

For when they fail, man turns unto his clay.

n But. ^ '"But tis" not in the first edition.

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