Poems by Thomas Stanley, Esquire.

The Dedication

To LOVE.

THou, whose sole Name all Passions doth com∣prize, Youngest and Eldest of the Deities, Born without Parents, whose unbounded Raign Moves the firm Eearth, fixeth the floating Main, Inverts the Course of Heav'n; and from the Deep Awakes those Souls that in dark Lethe sleep, By thy mysterious Chains seeking t'unite Once more, the long-since torn Hermaphrodite. He who thy willing Pris'ner long was vow'd And uncompell'd beneath thy Scepter bow'd, Returns at last in thy soft Fetters bound, With Victory, though not with Freedom crown'd: And, of his Dangers past a grateful Signe, Suspends this Tablet at thy numerous Shrine.