VII.

"If the domestic hearth could bless -

My sum of happiness contained;

If wife and children to possess

A happy destiny ordained:

If in the scenes of home I might

E'en for an instant find delight,

Then, I say truly, none but thee

I would desire my bride to be -

I say without poetic phrase,

Found the ideal of my youth,

Thee only would I choose, in truth,

As partner of my mournful days,

Thee only, pledge of all things bright,

And be as happy - as I might.

VIII.

"But strange am I to happiness;

'Tis foreign to my cast of thought;

Me your perfections would not bless;

I am not worthy them in aught;

And honestly 'tis my belief

Our union would produce but grief.

Though now my love might be intense,

Habit would bring indifference.

I see you weep. Those tears of yours

Tend not my heart to mitigate,

But merely to exasperate;

Judge then what roses would be ours,

What pleasures Hymen would prepare

For us, may be for many a year.

IX.

"What can be drearier than the house,

Wherein the miserable wife

Deplores a most unworthy spouse

And leads a solitary life?

The tiresome man, her value knowing,