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On Friendship.

1 Friendship (the great pursuit of noble Minds)
2 Passion in abstract, void of all designs;
3 Each generous Pen, doth celebrate thy Fame,
4 And yet I doubt, thou'rt nothing but a Name.
5 Some pregnant Fancy, in a raptur'd height,
6 Produc'd this mighty notional Delight.
7 The Muses virtuosal Chymistry,
8 To turn all Fortunes to Felicity;
9 'Tis fancy'd well, and this I dare ingage,
10 Were all Men Friends, 'twould be the golden Age;
11 But tell me where, this Extract may be found,
12 And what Ingredients make the Rich Compound;
13 Or in what Soul, is true kindly heat,
14 That can this great Experiment compleat.
15 Sometimes a fond good Nature lights upon
16 A soft and civil Temper like its own;
17 Strait they resolve to be those happy things,
18 Which when combin'd, pity contending Kings:
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19 Yet e'er they reach these sublimated Joys,
20 They'r poorly lost, in Treachery or Toys.
21 The mighty Notions of the exalted State,
22 Sink to a vulgar Commerce, or Debate:
23 Sure, like the Chymick Stone, it was design'd,
24 But to imploy the curious searching Mind,
25 In the pursuit of what, none e'er shall find;
26 Their Quality's I'm sure do prove all one,
27 Who trusts too much to either is undone.

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Title (in Source Edition): On Friendship.
Themes: friendship
Genres: heroic couplet; lyric

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Egerton, Sarah Fyge, 1668-1723. Poems on Several Occasions, Together with a Pastoral. By Mrs. S. F. [poems only] London: printed, and are to be sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, 1703, pp. 1-2. [20],117,[3],15,[1]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T125148) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [280 e.4058].)

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Other works by Sarah Fyge Egerton