II.

All ages past record, all countries now, In various kinds such equal beauties show, That ev'n judge Paris would not know On whom the golden apple to bestow, Though goddesses to his sentence did submit, Women and lovers would appeal from it: Nor durst he say, of all the female race, This is the sovereign face. And some (tho' these be of a kind that's rare, That's much, oh! much less frequent than the fair) So equally renown'd for virtue are, That is the mother of the gods might pose, When the best woman for her guide she chose. But if Apollo should design A woman Laureat to make, Without dispute he would Orinda take, Though Sappho and the famous nine Stood by, and did repine. To be a Princess or a Queen Is great; but 'tis a greatness always seen; The world did never but two women know, Who, one by fraud, th'other by wit did rise To the two tops of spiritual dignities, One female pope of old, one female poet now.