Verse 1
Ah! Dire effect of female pride!
How deep our mother’s sin, and wide,
Thro’ all her daughters spread!
Since first she pluck’d the mortal tree,
Each woman would a goddess be
In her Creator’s stead.

Verse 2
This fatal vanity of mind,
A curse intail’d on all the kind,
Her legacy we feel,
We neither can deny nor tame
Our inbred eagerness for fame,
And stubbornness of will.

Verse 3
The poison spreads throughout our veins,
In all our sex the evil reigns,
The arrogant offence,
In vain we strive the plague to hide;
Our fig-leaves but bewray our pride,
And loss of innocence.

Verse 4
Deeper we sink, and deeper still,
In pride instructed and self-will,
As custom leads the way:
The world their infant charge receive,
To pleasure our young hearts we give,
And bow to passion’s sway.

Verse 5
By folly taught, by nature led,
In senseless[1] delicacy bred,
In soft luxurious ease:
A feeble mind and body meet,
And pride and ignorance compleat
Our total uselesness.

[1] Wesley changed “senseless” to “sensual” in 1768.