There are mincing women, mewing,
(Like cats, who amant miserè,*)
Of their own virtue, and pursu ng
Their gentler sisters to that ruin,

Without which-what were chastity.+

* One of the attributes in Linnæus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred ;-except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others.

† What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be

Lawyers-judges-old hobnobbers
Are there bailiffs-chancellors-
Bishops-great and little robbers-
Rhymesters-pamphleteers-stock-jobbers—
Men of glory in the wars,—

Things whose trade is, over ladies

To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper, Till all that is divine in woman

Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman, Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper.

Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling,
Frowning, preaching-such a riot!
Each with never-ceasing labour,
Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbour,
Cheating his own heart of quiet.

And all these meet at levees ;

Dinners convivial and political ;Suppers of epic poets ;-teas, Where small talk dies in agonies ;Breakfasts professional and critical;

Lunches and snacks so aldermanic

That one would furnish forth ten dinners, Where reigns a Cretan-tongued panic, Lest news Russ, Dutch, or Alemannic Should make some losers, and some winners

At conversazioni-balls

Conventicles and drawing-roomsCourts of law-committees calls Of a morning-clubs-book-stallsChurches-masquerades—and tombs.

And this is Hell-and in this smother All are damnable and damned; Each one damning, damns the other; They are damned by one another,

By none other are they damned.

"Tis a lie to say, " God damns !"*
Where was Heaven's Attorney General
When they first gave out such flams!
Let there be an end of shams,

They are mines of poisonous mineral. without its kernel prostitution, or the kernel prostitution without this husk of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the "King, Church, and Constitution" of their order. But this subject is almost too horrible for a joke. * This libel on our national oath, and this accusation of