Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/100

92 And easy vanquish'd, with triumphant sway O'erpow'rs your life. For want of timely care Millions have died of medicable wounds.


 * Ah! in what perils is vain life engag'd!

What flight neglects, what trivial faults destroy The hardiest frame! Of indolence, of toil, We die; of want, of superfluity. The all-surrounding heaven, the vital air, Is big with death. And, tho' the putrid South Be shut; tho' no convulsive agony Shake, from the deep foundations of the world, Th' imprisoned plagues; a secret venom oft Corrupts the air, the water, and the land. What livid deaths has sad Byzantium seen! How oft has Cairo, with a mother's woe. Wept o'er her slaughter'd sons, and lonely streets! Rh