The Maid to My Mind...

I read this somewhere else and decided to post it here. It was written in a Ladies magazine from 1776. It is written from the perspective from a young man and I think it's very well done. Young women should aspire to the godly character qualities of "the maid" and this is also a reminder that others notice how we act and who we are. Character is important.

I'm a youth in my mind and if people say true

Have virtue sufficient good manners my due

Content in my station, such graces combined

Might sure render happy, the maid to my mind

If my choice should be granted, I freely confess

I ne'er could like one who's a slave to her dress

Though pleasing her beauty, her whit unrefined

Would prevent her from being the maid to my mind

Nor she that doth practice the patch and the paint

Whose heart is deceit though she looks like a saint

If ever so rich, since to nature unkind

I never would choose her for the maid to my mind

Above all the fair sex my contempt would set

On her who is surely a finished coquette

For as pride and conceit keep fair virtue confined

She could never please me as the maid to my mind

Then to banter no longer, but to end your suspense

I like one of prudence, good nature and sense

And coy to a fop to sincerity kind

In peace then I'd live with the maid to my mind

Her age and the size in her person should be

In neither superior, but equal to me

Her dress not to rich, yet to neatness inclined

Then this and no others the maid to my mind

Her shape should be handsome and graceful her air

So charming her features both lovely and fair

With these a fair portion by fortune entwined

Would make her completely the maid to my mind

Sound heaven but attend to my prayer and request

To make her my wife I should be so blessed

That the world might see hence that I never once repined

At choosing for life the fair maid to my mind