Gave her a right to have maternal fears

For a young gentleman's fit education,

Though she was far from that leap year, whose leap,

In female dates, strikes Time all of a heap.

LIII.

This may be fixed at somewhere before thirty—

Say seven-and-twenty; for I never knew

The strictest in chronology and virtue

Advance beyond, while they could pass for new.

O Time! why dost not pause? Thy scythe, so dirty