15
And in our wills our minds display.
This silent speech is swifter far
Than the ears' lazy species are;
And the expression it affords
(As our desires,) 'bove reach of words. 20
Thus we, my Dear, of these may learn[4:5]
A passion others not discern;
Nor can it shame or blushes move,
Like plants to live, like angels love:
Since all excuse with equal innocence 25
What above reason is, or beneath sense.

THE DEDICATION.[5:1]

To Love.

Thou whose sole name all passions doth comprise:
Youngest and eldest of the Deities,
Born without parents, whose unbounded reign
Moves the firm earth, fixeth the floating main,
Inverts the course of heaven, and from the deep 5
Awakes those souls that in dark Lethe sleep,
By thy mysterious chains seeking t'unite,
Once more, the long-since-torn hermaphrodite!
He who thy willing prisoner long was vow'd,
And uncompell'd beneath thy sceptre bow'd, 10
Returns at last in thy soft fetters bound,
With victory, though not with freedom, crown'd:
And, (of his dangers past a grateful sign,)
Suspends this tablet at thy numerous shrine.

THE GLOW-WORM.

Stay, fairest Chariessa, stay and mark
This animated gem,[6:1] whose fainter spark
Of fading light, its birth had from the dark:

A star thought by the erring[6:2] passenger
Which falling from its native orb, dropped here, 5
And makes the earth, its centre, now its sphere.

Should many of these sparks together be,
He that the unknown light far off should see
Would think it a terrestrial galaxy.

Take 't up, fair Saint; see how it mocks thy fright; 10
The paler flame doth not yield heat, though light,
Which thus deceives[6:3] thy reason, through thy sight.

But see how quickly it, ta'en up, doth fade,
(To shine in darkness only being made),
By th' brightness of thy light turn'd to a shade, 15

And burnt to ashes by thy flaming eyes!
On the chaste altar of thy hand it dies,
As to thy greater light a sacrifice.

TO CHARIESSA,[7:1]

_Desiring her to Burn his Verses._

These papers, Chariessa, let thy breath
Condemn, thy hand unto the flam