Learn temperance, friends; and hear without disdain ·*
The choice of water. Thus the * Coan fage
Opin'd, and thus the learn'd of ev'ry school.
What leaft of foreign principles partakes
Is beft: The lightest then; what bears the touch
Of fire the least, and soonest mounts in air;
The most infipid ; the most void of smell.
Such the rude mountain from his horrid fides
Pours down; fuch waters in the fandy vale
For ever boil, alike of winter frofts
And fummer's heat fecure.
And this fubject of water drinking he concludes with fome observations, on the proper ufe of other liquors, which are drawn from nature and experience, His reflection alfo on the nature of fermented liquors, and their tendency to refift putrefaction, and of confequence to retard digeftion, is very juft and philofophical.
Nothing like fimple element dilutes
The food, or gives the chyle fo foon to flow.
But where the ftomach, indolently given,
Toys with its duty, animate with wine
Th' infipid ftream; tho' golden Ceres yields.
A more voluptuous, a more sprightly draught;
Perhaps more active. Wine uamix'd, and all
The gluey floods that from the vex'd abyfs
Of fermentation fpring; with fpirit fraught,
And furious with intoxicating fire,
Retard concoction, and preferve unthaw'd
Th' embody'd mafs. You fee what countless years,
Embalm'd in fiery quintefcence of wine,
The puny wonders of the reptile world,
Maintain their texture, and unchang'd remain.
Mean time, I would not always dread the bowl,
Nor every trefpafs fhun. The feverish ftrife,
Rous'd by the rare debauch, fubdues, expels
The loit'ring crudities that burthen life;
And, like a torrent full and rapid, clears
"Th' obftructed tubes.
Then learn to revel; but by flow degrees:
By flow degrees the liberal arts are won ;
And Hercules grew ftrong. But when you smooth
The brows of care, indulge your festive vein
In cups by well inform'd experience found
The least your bane; and only with your friends;
There are sweet follies; frailties to be feen
By friends alone, and men of generous minds.
Oh! feldom may the fated hours return
Of drinking deep! I would not daily taste,
Except when life declines, even fober cups.
For know, whate'er
Beyond its natural fervour hurries on
The fanguine tide; whether the frequent bowl,
High-feafon'd fare, or exercise to toil
Protracted, fpurs to its laft ftage tir'd life,
And fows the temples with untimely fnow.
Our author ends this book with fome fublime rëflections on the mutability and decay of all things; and then enters on exercise, the subject of his third book; which tho' barren, and one would think incapable of many ornaments, is yet made agreeable by his manner of treating it; for in this, as well as in the last, he has, like an able fculptor, drawn harmony, beauty, and expreffion, out of very rude and unpromifing materials.
This book is addrefs'd to thofe of a delicate frame; to whom he thus points out the importance of exercife.
Behold the labourer of the glebe, who toils
In dust, in rain, in cold and fultry skies:
Save but the grain from mildews and the flood,
Nought anxious he what fickly ftars afcend.
He knows no laws by Efculapius given;
He ftudies none. Yet him nor midnight fogs
Infeft, nor thofe envenom'd fhafts that fly
When rapid Sirius fires th' autumnal noon.
His habit pure, with plain and temperate meals,.
Robust with labour, and by custom fteel'd
To ev'ry cafualty of vary'd life;
Serene he bears the peevish eastern blast,
And uninfected breathes the mortal fouth.
Toil, and be ftrong. By toil the flaccid nerves
Grow firm, and gain a more compacted tone;
The greener juices are by toil fubdu'd,
Mellow'd, and fubtilis'd; the vapid old
Expell'd, and all the rancour of the blood.
Come, my companions, ye who feel the charms
Of nature and the year; come, let us stray
Where chance or fancy leads our roving walk.
Go, climb the mountain; from th' ethereal fource
Imbibe the recent gale. The chearful morn
Beams o'er the hills; go, mount th' exulting fleed,
Already, fee, the deep-mouth'd beagles catch
The tainted mazes; and, on eager sport
Intent, with emulous impatience try.
Each doubtful trace. Or, if a nobler prey
Delight you more, go chafe the defp'rate deer;
And thro' its deepest folitudes awake
The vocal foreft with the jovial horn.
But fhould this exercise be too laborious, he invites us to the brook, and here pays a grateful tribute to the river Liddal, which waters the place of his nativity, and in which he has often employed himself in fifhing and swimming; or fhould you think thefe diverfions of hunting and fifhing inhumane and barbarous, as the author obferves the Pythagoreans did, and fome of the Indians now do, he leads you to the garden's foft amufement and humane delight, there to partake of the exercite which employ'd the first parents of mankind. From this the author deviates to the pleasures of rural life and converfation, and concludes the digreffion with these hospitable lines.
Sometimes, at eve, His neighbours lift the latch, and bless unbid His feftal roof; while, o'er the light repaft, And fprightly cups, they mix in focial joy; And, thro' the maze of converfation, trace te'er amufes or improves the mind.
Sometimes at eve (for I delight to taste
The native zeft and flavour of the fruit,
Where sense grows wild and takes of no manure)
The decent, honeft, chearful husbandman
Should drown his labours in my friendly bowl;
And at my table find himself at home.
He then returns to his fubject and recommends tennis, dancing, and shooting; but in the choice of exercife advifes every person to indulge his own taste.
He chuses best, whose labour entertains
His vacant fancy moft: The toil you hate
Fatigues you foon, and fcarce improves your limbs.
After he has treated of the importance and choice of exercise, he introduces these precepts for our conduct.
Begin with gentle toils; and, as your nerves
Grow firm, to hardier by juft fleps afpire.
The prudent, even in every moderate walk,
At first but faunter; and by flow degrees
Increase their pace. This doctrine of the wife
Well knows the matter of the flying feed.
When all at once from indolence to toil
You fpring, the fibres by the hafty shock
Are tir'd and crack'd, before their unctuous coat,
Comprefs'd, can pour the lubricating balm.
Befides, collected in the paffive veins,
The purple mafs a fudden torrent rolls,
O'erpowers the heart, and deluges the lungs
With dangerous inundation.-
But when the hard varieties of life
You toil to learn; or try the duty chafe ;
Or the warm deeds of fome important day;
Hot from the field, indulge not yet your limbs
In wifh'd repofe; nor court the fanning gale,
Nor tafte the fpring. O! by the facred tears
Of widows, orphans, mothers, fifters, fires,
Forbear! No other peftilence has driven
Such myriads o'er th' irremeable deep.
He then defcends to bathing, and recommends a proper ufe of the cold bath in our climate to those whose conftitutions will admit of it.
Against the rigors of a damp cold heav'n To fortify their bodies, fome frequent
The gelid ciftern; and, where nought forbids, 1 praise their dauntless heart.
But to those who live in fultry climes a frequent use of the warm bath is recommended, and fometimes in our own; where it is of the greateft confequence to health as well as beauty.
Let those who from the frozen Arcos reach
Parch'd Mauritania, or the fultry west,
Or the wide flood that waters Indoftan,
Plunge thrice a day, and in the tepid wave
Untwist their ftubborn pores; that full and free
Th'evaporation thro' the foften'd skin
May bear proportion to the fwelling blood.
With us, the man of no complaint demands
The warm ablution just enough to clear
The fluices of the fkin, enough to keep
The body facred from indecent foil.
He then speaks of the hours and seasons fit for exer. cife; advises labour when fafting, or when the ftomach is but lightly fed, to thofe of a corpulent frame; whereas exercife after the meat is digefted, and before hunger returns, is beft for those of a lean habit: But all are to abstain from labour immediately after a full meal.
But from the recent meal no labours please,
Of limbs or mind. For now the cordial powers
Claim all the wandring fpirits to a work
Of strong and fubtle toil, and great event:
A work of time: and you may rue the day
You hurry'd, with untimely exercise,
A half concocted chyle into the blood.
The body over-charged with unctuous phlegm
Much toil demands: the lean elaftic lefs.
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