Here an apt lesson you may find,
Often to look into your mind.
A man a son and daughter had;
Ugly the girl, right fair the lad.
About their mother's chair at play,
They found a looking-glass one day.
He, pleas'd his beauty to have seen,
Laught at his sister's homely mien.
Enrag'd, she to the father run
With heavy charge against the son;
"What shame," she cries, "that he, a boy,
Should meddle with a female toy!"
And did her best revenge to have,
For what no female e'er forgave.
The tender father both caress'd;
To each an equal love express'd;
And said, "This glass shall daily be
A lesson, girl, for him and thee;
That he his beauty ne'er disgrace;
That thou with worth supply its place."
Source: Boothby - Phaedrus 3.7.
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