Byron's Poetical Works, Volume 1

  The Moralists tell us that Loving is Sinning,
    And always are prating about and about it,
  But as Love of Existence itself’s the beginning,
    Say, what would Existence itself be without it?

  They argue the point with much furious Invective,
    Though perhaps ’twere no difficult task to confute it;
  But if Venus and Hymen should once prove defective,
    Pray who would there be to defend or dispute it?

BYRON.

[Footnote 1:  From an autograph MS. (watermark 1805) at Newstead, now for the first time printed.]