quote · Legacy record
Life swarms with ills; the boldest are afraid; Where, then, is safety for a tender maid? Unfit for conflict, round beset with woes, And man, whom least she fears, her worst of foes; When kind, most cruel; when oblig’d the most, The least obliging; and by favours lost. Cruel by nature, they for kindness hate, And scorn you for those ills themselves create: If on your frame our sex a blot has thrown, ’Twill ever stick, through malice of your own. Most hard! in pleasing your chief glory lies; And yet from pleasing your chief dangers rise: Then please the best; and know, for men of sense, Your strongest charms are native innocence; Arts on the mind, like paint upon the face, Fright him that’s worth your love from your embrace, In simple manners, all the secret lies; Be kind and virtuous, you’ll be blest and wise.
Life swarms with ills; the boldest are afraid; Where, then, is safety for a tender maid? Unfit for conflict, round beset with woes, And man, whom least she fears, her worst of foes; When kind, most cruel; when oblig’d the most, The least obliging; and by favours lost. Cruel by nature, they for kindness hate, And scorn you for those ills themselves create: If on your frame our sex a blot has thrown, ’Twill ever stick, through malice of your own. Most hard! in pleasing your chief glory lies; And yet from pleasing your chief dangers rise: Then please the best; and know, for men of sense, Your strongest charms are native innocence; Arts on the mind, like paint upon the face, Fright him that’s worth your love from your embrace, In simple manners, all the secret lies; Be kind and virtuous, you’ll be blest and wise.
In print by 1888 AD · industrial
Recorded in a printed collection by this date; the original date of these words is still unknown.
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Young (identity unresolved)
Attribution: unknown - Country attributed
- Not established
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- In print by 1888 AD · industrial
In print by 1888: recorded in A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888). Collection publication is an upper bound for this wording, not its earliest origin, composition date or the author's lifetime.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 643 · printed citation: Young · subject: VIRTUE
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.