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'Aye, aye," quo Epps, "an sae it's you, "Ye auld, confoundit, thief-lyke sow! "Nae dout ye'r kein to try yer hand, "Amang yer hairie, blackguard band, "Ye maybe think that spinin's naething, "An that it wastes nae sap nor braethin. "Ye'r newfanglit now; but wait a wie, "Till ye hae spun as lang as me: "Ise wad a dollar, maister deil, "Ye'll gladlie gie me back my quheil.” Clutes heard, an tho he was the devil, For ance he ackit very civil;

For lauchand at puir Eppie's crack,
He cuist the quheil doun on hir back.

MORAL.

Quhan ill luck cums, be't mair or less, It's ay the best to acquiesce;

An raither lauch tho geir soud lie us,
Nor quheinge quhaneir it's harlit frae us.
This tacks the wecht frae ilka cross,
And gars us ryse abune our loss;
Gars Fortoun quhyles gie owr to hiss us,
An smyland, turn about and bliss us!

THE POUR O CONSCIENCE.

Aye, ye may busk wi rosie wreathe

The bitter cup o care;

An ye may gar the drink aneath
To skinkle bricht an fair.

An ye may busk the face wi smyles,
To hyde the woundit hart;

An fleitch on mirth wi flatteran wyles,
To pou awa the dart.

An ye may slicht the bosum freind,
That chacks you quhau ye sin;

An ilka hour in daffin spend,

To droun the voice within.

But still the flours wi aw thair pryde,
The drink thay canna sweiten ;
An still the smyles thay canna hyde
The hart wi canker eiten.

An conscience, tho ye've held her lang
Huzhit in a doveran sleip,
Will ryse belyve, refreshit an strang,
An gar you rewfu weip!

Glasgow, 25th Sept. 1818.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"B. S." and "S. P. D. R." are not forgotten. We shall be glad to hear frequently from the author of the above lines, dated "Glasgow."

Greenock: printed by R. Donaldson.

THE

VISITOR,

OR,

LITERARY MISCELLANY.

No. XII.-VOL. II.

ON FEMALE BEAUTY, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE
STATE OF SOCIETY.

IN joyous youth, what soul hath never known
Thought, feeling, taste harmonious to its own?
Who hath not paused while Beauty's pensive eye
Asked from his heart the homage of a sigh?
Who hath not owned with rapture-smitten frame,
The power of grace, the magic of a name?

CAMPBELL.

That moralist must have been blind indeed, nay willingly so, who, in his observations on human nature, has not discovered the mighty influence of Beauty, in polishing the manners, smoothing the inequalities, and modifying the whole aspect of society. The elegant lines from the Pleasures of Hope, above quoted, and prefixed as the motto to this paper, need only be repeated, to insure our acquiescence in the sentiments they convey. There is no laboured gloss or commentary required to

M

illustrate their force, or prove their propriety-the heart instantaneously acknowledges their justness, and silently yields to their truth.

Whatever may be the primary constituents of female beauty, it is here unnecessary to enquire. Such an investigation would lead us rather out of our path, and perhaps leave us, after all, perplexed and entangled with metaphysical subtleties, from which it might prove a difficult matter to get ourselves extricated. Besides, it is a question of such a nature, that it may reasonably be doubted if it ever will, or can be solved in a satisfactory and philosophical manner. All those writers whom we have perused on this subject, have generally created more doubts, but seldom cleared away a single difficulty. Many, we may safely say the majority, while lucubrating on this topic, have, like Bays in the Dunciad,

Gnawed their pen, then dashed it on the ground, Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound; Plunged for their sense, but found no bottom there, Yet wrote and floundered on in mere despair.

Let others amuse themselves as they please with curved and straight lines, expression, harmony, symmetry, proportion, grace, colour, and we know not all what, for our own part we have little leisure to spend in fixing the meaning of these terms; and sensible that beauty, in whatever it may be found to consist, exercises a boundless sway over huma

nity, we satisfy ourselves with being in possession of this fact, and seek no farther. Again, we shrewdly suspect that the time occupied in this way, might be as profitably employed, in committing to memory the technical phraseology and barbarous nomenclature of a Herald's Office.

Juvenal in one of his satires has noted the same fact, but with a different purpose in view than we intend:

Nulla fere causa est, in qua non femina litem

Moverit.

Which observation is unquestionably just, so far? as it implies the ascendancy and power of women in society, in consequence of their charms; but erroneous, when it hints they are the sources of every mischief, and the promoters of every strife.

It has always struck us with surprize, that aware of this circumstance, rulers and statesmen have not seized on an engine of so extensive utility and power, by vesting Ladies in high legislative, political, and judicial offices and privileges. No measure could so speedily reform, and quietly revolutionize a country, than the one now suggested. There is only one wise man of antiquity whom we recollect of, that improved on this idea; and who by a liberal use of it, made his own person be venerated and regarded by his followers in the sacred light of a holy and divine prophet:who by it sweetened his creed of all its acidities, and sanctified all its absurdities. This wise man was Mahomet. Verily