18
Thou didst express
To all, whom thou didst with thy friendship bless.
To think of passion by new mothers bore
To the young offspring of their womb,
Or that of lovers to what they adore,
Ere duty it become:
We should too mean ideas frame,
Of that which thine might justly claim,
And injure it by a degrading name:
Conceive the tender care
Of guardian angels to their charge assigned,
Or think how dear
To heaven expiring martyrs are;
These are the emblems of thy mind,
The only types to show how thou wast kind.
19
'Twas lasting as eternity,
And firm as the unbroken chain of destiny.
Embraces would feint shadows of your union show,
Unless you could together grow.
That union which is from alliance bred,
Does not so fastly wed,
Though it with blood be cemented:
That link wherewith the soul and body's joined,
Which twists the double nature in mankind,
Only so close can bind.
That holy fire which Romans to their Vesta paid,
Which they immortal as the goddess made,
Thy noble flames most fitly parallel;
For thine were just so pure, and just so durable.
Those feignèd pairs of faithfulness, which claim
So high a place in ancient fame,
Had they thy better pattern seen,
