TO MRS. …….
Reading edition
ON SOME CALUMNIES AGAINST HER CHARACTER.
Is not thy mind a gentle mind? Is not that heart a heart refined? Hast thou not every gentle grace, We love in woman's mind and face? And, oh! art thou a shrine for Sin To hold her hateful worship in?
No, no, be happy—dry that tear— Though some thy heart hath harbored near, May now repay its love with blame; Though man, who ought to shield thy fame, Ungenerous man, be first to shun thee; Though all the world look cold upon thee, Yet shall thy pureness keep thee still Unharmed by that surrounding chill; Like the famed drop, in crystal found,[1] Floating, while all was frozen round,— Unchilled unchanging shalt thou be, Safe in thy own sweet purity.
[1] This alludes to a curious gem, upon which Claudian has left us some very elaborate epigrams. It was a drop of pure water enclosed within a piece of crystal. Addison mentions a curiosity of this kind at Milan; and adds; "It is such a rarity as this that I saw at Vendöme in France, which they there pretend is a tear that our Saviour shed over Lazarus, and was gathered up by an angel, who put it into a little crystal vial, and made a present of it to Mary Magdalen".