That Sin, Satan’s Daughter, as Milton has told us,
Has dealt to Mankind all the Plagues which enfold us.
’Tis false—I acquit her with lenient Sentence;
The Plagues they describe are the Plagues of Repentance;
And surely ’tis hard we should blame her for Woes 250
She strives to keep from us wherever she goes.
To bully Devotion and banter her Laws,
To seduce a Weak Mind, and to plead in the Cause,
A Friend to betray, or a Father to wound,
And revel in Folly’s fantastical round,