To rear their graces into second life;
To give Society its highest taste;
Well-order'd Home Man's best delight to make;
And by submissive wisdom, modest skill,
With every gentle care-eluding art, 705
To raise the virtues, animate the bliss,
And sweeten all the toils of human life:
This be the female dignity, and praise.
Ye swains now hasten to the hazel-bank;
Where, down yon dale, the wildly-winding brook 610
Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array,
Fit for the thickets, and the tangling shrub,
Ye virgins, come. For you their latest song
The woodlands raise; the clustring nuts for you
The lover finds amid the secret shade; 615
And, where they burnish on the topmost bough,
With active vigour crushes down the tree;
Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk,
A glossy shower, and of an ardent brown,
As are the ringlets of Melinda's hair: 620
Melinda! form'd with every grace complete,
Yet these neglecting, above beauty wife,
And far transcending such a vulgar praise.
Hence from the busy joy-resounding fields,
In chearful error, let us tread the maze 625
Of Autumn, unconfin'd; and taste, reviv'd,
The breath of orchard big with bending fruit.
Obedient to the breeze and beating ray,
From the deep loaded bough a mellow shower
Incessant melts away. The juicy pear 630
Lies, in a soft profusion, scatter'd round.
A various sweetness swells the gentle race;
In species different, but in kind the same,
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