To Lady Mary Wortley Montague.

1 In beauty or wit,     No mortal as yet     To question your empire has dared;     But men of discerning     Have thought that in learning     To yield to a lady was hard.     2 Impertinent schools,     With musty dull rules,     Have reading to females denied:     So Papists refuse     The Bible to use,     Lest flocks should be wise as their guide.     3 'Twas a woman at first     (Indeed she was cursed)     In knowledge that tasted delight,     And sages agree     The laws should decree     To the first possessor the right.     4 Then bravely, fair dame,     Resume the old claim,     Which to your whole sex does belong;     And let men receive,     From a second bright Eve,     The knowledge of right and of wrong.     5 But if the first Eve     Hard doom did receive,     When only one apple had she,     What a punishment new     Shall be found out for you,     Who, tasting, have robb'd the whole tree!