Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/285
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The WIFE of BATH.
249
For when my transitory spouse, unkind,
Shall die, and leave his woful wife behind,
I'll take the next good Christian I can find.
Paul, knowing one could never serve our turn,
Declar'd 'twas better far to wed, than burn;
There's danger in assembling fire and tow,
I grant 'em that, and what it means you know.
The same Apostle too has elsewhere own'd
No precept for virginity he found:
'Tis but a counsel———and we women still
Take which we like, the counsel, or our will.
I envy not their bliss, if he or she
Think fit to live in perfect chastity,
Pure let them be, and free from taint of vice;
I, for a few slight spots, am not so nice.
Heav'n calls us diff'rent ways, on these bestows
One proper gift, another grants to those:
Not ev'ry man's oblig'd to sell his store,
And give up all his substance to the poor;
Shall die, and leave his woful wife behind,
I'll take the next good Christian I can find.
Paul, knowing one could never serve our turn,
Declar'd 'twas better far to wed, than burn;
There's danger in assembling fire and tow,
I grant 'em that, and what it means you know.
The same Apostle too has elsewhere own'd
No precept for virginity he found:
'Tis but a counsel———and we women still
Take which we like, the counsel, or our will.
I envy not their bliss, if he or she
Think fit to live in perfect chastity,
Pure let them be, and free from taint of vice;
I, for a few slight spots, am not so nice.
Heav'n calls us diff'rent ways, on these bestows
One proper gift, another grants to those:
Not ev'ry man's oblig'd to sell his store,
And give up all his substance to the poor;
Such