TO MISS E.P.


1.

Eliza! what fools are the Mussulman sect,
Who to woman deny the soul's future existence,
Could they see thee, Eliza! they'd own their defect,
And this doctrine would meet with a general resistance.

2.

Had their Prophet possess'd but an atom of sense,
He ne'er would have _woman_ from Paradise driven,
But instead of his _Houris_ a flimsy pretence,
With _woman alone_, he had peopled his Heaven.

3.

But still to increase your calamities more,
Not content with depriving your bodies of spirit,
He allots but _one husband_ to share amongst four,
With _souls_ you'd dispense--but this last who could bear it.

4.

His religion to please neither _party_ is made,
On _husbands_ 'tis _hard_, to the wives most uncivil;
But I can't contradict what so oft has been said,