VENUS, most histories agree,
Sprung from the ferment of the sea;
Yet I confess I'm always loth
To think such beauty was but froth,
Or that the ocean, which more odd is,
Should from a bubble spawn a Goddess:
Tho' hence, my Laura, learned fellows
Of such its wonderous powers still tell us,
That every mother brings her daughter
To dip in this specific water,
Expecting from the briny wave
Charms which it once to Venus gave.