For fragrance vies; for in the thirsty soil Most fragrant breathe the aromatic tribes. There bid thy roofs high on the basking steep Ascend, there light thy hospitable fires. And let them see the winter morn arise, The summer evening blushing in the west; While with umbrageous oaks the ridge behind O'erhung, defends you from the blust'ring north, And bleak affliction of the peevish east. O! when the growling winds contend, and all The sounding forest fluctuates in the storm; To sink in warm repose, and hear the din Howl o'er the steady battlements, delights Above the luxury of common sleep.
The murmuring rivulet, and the hoarser strain Of waters rushing o'er the slippery rocks, Will nightly lull you to ambrosial rest.
To please the fancy is no trifling good,
Where health is studied; for whatever moves
The mind with calm delight, promotes the just
And natural movements of the harmonious frame. Besides, the sportive brook forever shakes The trembling air; that floats from hill to hill, From vale to mountain, with incessant change Of purest element, refreshing still Your airy seat, and uninfected Gods.
Chiefly for this I praise the man who builds High on the breezy ridge, whose lofty sides Th' etherial deep with endless billows chafes. His purer mansion nor contagious years Shall reach, nor deadly putrid airs annoy.
But may no fogs, from lake or fenny plain, Involve my hill! And wheresoe'er you build; Whether on sun-burnt Epsom, or the plains Wash'd by the silent Lee; in Chelsea low,
Or high blackheath with wintry winds assail'd; Dry be your house: but airy more than warm.
Else every breath of ruder wind will strike
Your tender body thro' with rapid pains;
Fierce coughs will teize you, hoarsness bind your voice,
Or moist Gravado load your aching brows.
These to defy, and all the fates that dwell
In cloister'd air, tainted with streaming life, Let lofty ceilings grace your ample rooms; And still at azure noontide may you dome At every window drink the liquid sky.
Need we the sunny situation here, And theatres open to the south, commend? Here, where the morning's misty breath infests More than the torrid noon? How sickly grow, How pale, the plants in those ill-fated vales, That, circled round with the gigantic heap Of mountains, never felt, nor ever hope
To feel, the genial vigor of the sun!
While on the neighbouring hill the rose inflames
The verdant spring; in virgin beauty blows
The tender lily, languishingly sweet;
O'er every hedge the wanton woodbine roves, And autumn ripens in the summer's ray. Nor less the warmer living tribes demand The fost'ring sun: whose energy divine Dwells not in mortal fire; whose gen'rous heat Glows thro'the mass of grosser elements, And kindles into life the ponderous spheres. Cheer'd by thy kind, invigorating warmth, We court thy beams, great majesty of day! If not the soul, the regent of this world, First-born of heaven, and only less than God!
NOUGH of Air. A desart subject now, Kougher and wilder, rises to my sight; A barren waste, where not a garland grows To bind the Muse's brow; not ev'n a proud, Stupendous solicitude frowns o'er the heath, To rouse a noble horror in the soul: But rugged paths fatigue, and error leads Through endless labyrinths the devious feet. Farewell, ethereal fields! the humbler arts Of life; the table of the homely Gods Demand my song. Elysian gales adieu!
The blood, the fountain whence the spirits flow,
The generous stream that waters every part,
And motion, vigour, and warm life conveys
To every particle that moves or lives,
This vital fluid, through unnumber'd tubes Pour'd by the heart, and to the heart again Refunded; scourg'd for ever round and round; Enrag'd with heat and toil, at last forgets Its balmy nature; virulent and thin
It grows; and now, but that a thousand gates Are open to its flight, it would destroy The parts it cherish'd and repair'd before. Besides, the flexible and tender tubes Melt in the mildest, most nectareous tide That ripening nature rolls; as in the stream
Its crumbling banks; but what the vital force Of plastic fluids hourly batters down,
That very force, those plastic particles Rebuild: so mutable the state of man. For this the watchful appetite was giv'n, Daily, with fresh materials, to repair This unavoidable expence of life, This necessary waste of flesh and blood. Hence the concoctive powers, with various art, Subdue the cruder aliments to chyle;
The chyle to blood; the foamy purple tide To liquors, which, through finer arteries, To different parts their winding course pursue; To try new changes, and new forms put on, Or for the public, or some private use.
Nothing so foreign but the athletic hind Can labour into blood. The hungry meal Alone he fears, or aliments too thin; By violent powers too easily subdu'd, Too soon expell'd. His daily labour thaws, To friendly chyle, the most rebellious mass That salt can harden, or the smoke of years; Nor does his gorge the rancid bacon rue, Nor that which Cestria sends, tenacious paste Of solid milk. But ye of softer clay, Infirm and delicate! and ye who waste, With pale and bloated sloth, the tedious day! Avoid the stubborn aliment, avoid The full repast; and let sagacious age
Grow wiser, lesson'd by the dropping teeth.
Half subtiliz'd to chyle, the liquid food Readiest obeys th' assimilating powers; And soon the tender vegetable mass
Relents; and soon the young of those that tread The steadfast earth, or cleave the green abyss, Or pathless sky. And if the steer must fall, In youth and sanguine vigour let him die; Nor stay till rigid age, or heavy ails, Absolve him, ill requited, from the yoke. Some with high forage, and luxurient ease, Indulge the veteran ox; but wiser thou,
From the bald mountain or the barren downs, Expect the flocks by frugal nature fed;
A race of purer blood, with exercise
Refin'd and scanty fare; For, old or young,
The stall'd are never healthy; nor the cramm'd,
Not all the culinary arts can tame,
To wholesome food, the abominable growth Of rest and gluttony; the prudent taste
Rejects, like bane, such loathsome lusciousness.
The languid stomach curses even the pure Delicious fat, and all the race of oil: For more the oily aliments relax
Its feeble tone; and with the eager lymph (Fond to incorporate with all it meets) Coily they mix, and shun with slippery wiles The woo'd embrace. Th' irresoluble oil, So gentle late, and blandishing, in floods Of rancid bile o'erflows: what tumults hence, What horrors rise, were nauseous to relate, Choose leaner viands, ye whose jovial make Too fast the gummy nutriment imbibes : Choose sober meals: and rouse to active life
Your cumbrous clay; nor on th' infeebling down,
Irresolute, protract the morning hours.
But let the man whose bones are thinly clad, With cheerful ease and succulent repast Improve his slender habit. Each extreme From the blest mean of sanity departs.
I could relate what table this demands,
Or that complexion; what the various powers
Of various foods: but fifty years would roll,
And fifty more, before the tale were done.
Besides, there often lurks some nameless, strange,
Peculiar thing; nor on the skin display'd,
Felt in the pulse, nor in the habit seen;
Which finds a poison in the food, that most
For cooler, kinder, sustenance implore. Some even the generous nutriment detest
Which, in the shell, the sleeping embroy rears. Some, more unhappy still, repent the gifts Of Pales; soft, delicious, and benign: The balmy quintessence of every flower, And every grateful herb that decks the spring; The fost'ring dew of tender sprouting life; The best refection of declining age;
« AnteriorContinuar » |