XXXIV. From these they will be careful to select, For t'other one who promises much duty; Whose sole accomplishments were quite a booty; A second for her excellent connections; A third, because there can be no objections. XXXV. When Rapp the Harmonist embargo'd marriage (1) In his harmonious settlement-(which flourishes Strangely enough as yet without miscarriage, Because it breeds no more mouths than it nourishes, Without those sad expenses which disparage What Nature naturally most encourages) — Why call'd he "Harmony" a state sans wedlock? Now here I have got the preacher at a dead lock. XXXVI. Because he either meant to sneer at harmony (1) This extraordinary and flourishing German colony in America does not entirely exclude matrimony, as the "Shakers" do; but lays such restrictions upon it as prevent more than a certain quantum of births within a certain number of years; which births (as Mr. Hulme observes) generally arrive "in a little flock like those of a farmer's lambs, all within the same month perhaps." These Harmonists (so called from the name of their settlement) are represented as a remarkably flourishing, pious, and quiet people. See the various recent writers on America. Pious and pure, beyond what I can term any Although I wonder how it grew habitual. XXXVII. But Rapp is the reverse of zealous matrons, Of all the modest part of propagation; XXXVIII. Had Adeline read Malthus? I can't tell; [ment, I wish she had: his book's the eleventh commandWhich says, "Thou shalt not marry," unless well: This he (as far as I can understand) meant. Tis not my purpose on his views to dwell, Nor canvass what "so eminent a hand" meant;(') But certes it conducts to lives ascetic, Or turning marriage into arithmetic. (1) Jacob Tonson, according to Mr. Pope, was accustomed to call his writers "able pens," 66 persons of honour," and especially "eminent hands." Vide Correspondence, &c. &c.-[" Perhaps I should myself be much better pleased, if I were told you called me your little friend, than if you complimented me with the title of a 'great genius,' or an eminent hand,' as Jacob does all his authors." - Pope to Steele.] XXXIX. But Adeline, who probably presumed That Juan had enough of maintenance, Or separate maintenance, in case 't was doom'dAs on the whole it is an even chance That bridegrooms, after they are fairly groom'd, May retrograde a little in the dance Of marriage-(which might form a painter's fame, Like Holbein's "Dance of Death" (')—but 'tis the same);— XL. But Adeline determined Juan's wedding In her own mind, and that's enough for woman: But then, with whom? There was the sage Miss [Knowman, Reading, Miss Raw, Miss Flaw, Miss Showman, and Miss And the two fair co-heiresses Giltbedding. She deem'd his merits something more than All these were unobjectionable matches, [common: And might go on, if well wound up, like watches. XLI. There was Miss Millpond, smooth as summer's sea, That usual paragon, an only daughter, Who seem'd the cream of equanimity, [water, Till skimm'd- and then there was some milk and With a slight shade of blue too, it might be, Beneath the surface; but what did it matter? Love's riotous, but marriage should have quiet, And being consumptive, live on a milk diet. (1) [See D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, New Series, vol. ii. p. 308., and the Dissertation prefixed to Mr. Douce's valuable edition of Hollar's Dance of Death.] XLII. And then there was the Miss Audacia Shoestring, A dashing demoiselle of good estate, Whose heart was fix'd upon a star or blue string; But whether English dukes grew rare of late, Or that she had not harp'd upon the true string, By which such sirens can attract our great, She took up with some foreign younger brother, A Russ or Turk-the one's as good as t'other. XLIII. And then there was-but why should I go on, Of the best class, and better than her class,— Aurora Raby, a young star who shone O'er life, too sweet an image for such glass, XLIV. Rich, noble, but an orphan; left an only Blood is not water; and where shall we find XLV. Early in years, and yet more infantine In figure, she had something of sublime And grieved for those who could return no more. XLVI. She was a Catholic, too, sincere, austere, To novel power; and as she was the last, XLVII. She gazed upon a world she scarcely knew And kept her heart serene within its zone. |