ous bill.
Such conduct in a parent may be wise,
Where good estates can all his wants supplies;
The ill effects that rise from such a plan,
Is were stern poverty assails the man.
Parents there are who often live this way,
Although two shillings in the pound can't pay.
Soon as their creditors do sharply press,
The lovely maidens feel extreme distress;
No lover then to sooth the drooping eye,
When poverty is seen from them they fly:
Unfit to baffle with the frowns of life,
And greatly more so for to be a wife.
Then does the wealthy Libertine succeed,
Furnish their pockets known to be in need;
Takes Miss from home to grace a chaise and pair,
While the unhappy parents nurse despair.

A LETTER FROM
_Miss Maria C***_, _to her Parents at_

* * * * *

My pen I take, my wretched fate to state,
Pardon, oh pardon, tho' a vile ingrate;
Your daughter late so innocent and gay,
Was by a vile seducer led astray
From those chase precepts by you taught to know,
That he who sets above knows all below;
Either on earth or in the heavenly skies,
Each substance falls or as he wishes rise.
I fell a victim to unchaste desires,
And feel those sorrows vengeance now requires,
After I left a parent's house and home,
Induced with wicked Henry to roam;
That sweet society my bosom knew,
From me that instant bade a long adieu.
Time, I much fear, will not that balm restore;
Its fled from me and will return no more.
I know that sweet compassion fills your mind,
And to forgiveness ever was inclin'd;
Take then your daughter to your arms again,
And she from latent vices will abstain.
With pious thoughts she'll pass the day away,
Till stern reproof is banish'd far away;
Too well I know that censure will appear,
In every mansion when Maria's there;
Soon as the vengeance of her sting is cast,
The scoffers arrogance no longer last;
Too true I know that woes I'm doom'd to bear,
The unfeeling frown the virgin's haughty sneer;
In time they'll vanish when its known I rove,
In virtue's path with innocence and love.
My prayers I'll offer to the throne on high,
And live as ordered by the Deity.
Lately I met my Mother's upper maid,
To ask her questions I was much afraid;
Yet ere I bade the honest girl adieu,
Nature compell'd me to inquire of you:
She