There was on both sides much to say:
She'd hear the cause another day.
And so she did; and then a third
She heard it — there she kept her word:
But, with rejoinders or replies,120
Long bills, and answers stuff'd with lies,
Demur, imparlance, and essoign,
The parties ne'er could issue join:
For sixteen years the cause was spun,
And then stood where it first begun.125
Now, gentle Clio, sing or say,
What Venus meant by this delay.
The goddess much perplex'd in mind
To see her empire thus declin'd;
Wlien first this grand debate arose,130
Above her wisdom to compose,
Conceiv'd a project in her head
To work her ends; which, if it sped,
Would show the merits of the cause
Far better than consulting laws.135
In a glad hour Lucina's aid
Produc'd on earth a wondrous maid,
On whom the Queen of Love was bent
To try a new experiment.
She threw her law books on the shelf,140
And thus debated with herself.
Since men allege, they ne'er can find
Those beauties in a female mind,
Which raise a flame that will endure
For ever uncorrupt and pure;145
If 'tis with reason they complain,
This infant shall restore my reign.
I'll search where every virtue dwells,
From courts inclusive down to cells:
