ANSWER TO AN ADVERTISEMENT.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 58, 8 February 1868, Page 4

ANSWER TO AN ADVERTISEMENT.

I TSX-'K. sir. when you advertised So lately for a wife, To be the soother of your cares, The part ner of your life, ■Whose charms, acquired and natural, Whose cultivated powers Should prove at once the ornament And sweetner of your hours. Of humble portion—humble in This mercenary age, Where wealth, far more then merit, doth Men's venal love engage, You had forgotten one sweet grace. The loveliest that can be, Without which woman ne’er can charmThat grace is modesty. She might be all you wish, yet sure To this she has no claim. If to a nameless stranger she Consents to sign her name. Tet, why do you. we ask in turn, Thus barter for a wife ? Have early errors cast a shade Upon your noon of life ? Or doth your character, then hear The withering blight of shame J Have guilt and obloquy attached There terrors to your name ? Or is not yours the face and form To win a lady’s eyes ? That for a wife your are compelled— Oh, strange ! —to advertise. Believe that woman, though too oft Degraded by the base, Knows what is due to her, and will Maintain her sex's place. Her principles revolt to yield Her heart and hand unsought; Her gentle love, sir, may he won, But win it as you ought. J.A.