Works

As I looked in the Glass this Morning & kept Bouhours Maniere de bien penser in my Hand—like Swift's Vanessa

Who we know—held Montagne and read—
While M^rs Susan comb'd her Head¹.

I thought of the following enigmatical Verses: those which gave rise to them both in French & in Italian², may be found in the above mentioned little Volume; but mine have a finesse neither of the others have; which consists in the The Description being equally fit for a Platonic Lover, as for oneself in the Looking Glass—& 'tis more difficult in our language to avoid the mentioning of he or her than in theirs, where Sex is attributed so to inanimate Beings.

I saw a curious Thing to Day,
Oh then—describe it to me pray:
'Tis like myself, so like indeed,
My own Defects I there can read:
My own perfections there approve,
And triumph in Platonic Love.
Seem'd with my Eyes alone to see,
And glow with Sensibility—
With correspondent Action grace
My Song—and dwell upon my Face:
Yet thus expert in Frown and Smile,
There's not much Feeling all the while;
For if in Tryal of the Heart,
I seem in Anger to depart—
Ages unsought might I remain,
Nor my lost Friend e'er find again.

Footnotes

1. Cadenus and Vanessa, ll 371-2.↩︎
2. Comte d'Etelan's ‘Sonnet du Miroir', and an unnamed Italian poet's lines, which are found on pp. 285-6 and p. 287, respectively, of the 1687 edition of Bouhours. Mrs. Piozzi later published this adaptation in the _Florence Miscellany.↩︎