To an Innocent Girl

Maid! who canst hardly yet believe
The Tempter could have tempted Eve,
And wonderest with religious doubt
What the good angels were about
To let that horrid creature in
And try to teach her what is sin . .
Trust me, my little girl, altho'
Strange is the story, it was so.
Her whom the hollow world applauds
Where'er she moves, whate'er the gauds
Of wit and beauty she may wear,
One evil action strips her bare;
One groveling and seductive vice
Tempts her . . and farewell Paradise!