The Virginia Gazette

POET'S CORNER.

The Maid's Soliloquy.

The maid alone with Milton in her hand, opens at this celebrated page:

Hail wedded love! mysterious law, &c.

Our maker bids increase: Who bids abstain
But our destroyer, foe to God and man?

'T must be so, Milton thou reason'st well,
Else why this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after something unpossess't?

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of dying unespoused? Why shrinks the soul
Back on itself, and startles at virginity?

'Tis instinct, faithful instinct, stirs within us,
'Tis nature's self that points out an alliance,
And intimates a husband to the sex.

Marriage, thou pleasing, and yet anxious thought!
Through what variety of hopes and fears,
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!

Th' unchanging state, in prospect, lies before me,
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.

Here will I hold; if nature prompts the wish
(And that she does is plain from all her works)
Our duty and our interest bid indulge it,
For the great end of nature's laws is bliss

But yet, in wedlock, women must obey.

I'm weary of these doubts; the priest shall end them.

Nor rashly do I venture loss or gain;
Bondage and pleasure meet my thoughts at once.

I wed, my liberty is gone for ever,
But happiness from time itself secured;

Love first shall recompense my loss of freedom;
And when my charms shall fade away, my eyes
Themselves grow dim, my stature bend with years,

Then virtuous friendship shall succeed to love;
Then, pleased, I'll scorn infirmities and death,
Renew'd, immortal, in a filial race.