Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/11

B. I. Of cold and hot, or moist and dry produce; They fly thy pure effulgence: they, and all The secret poisons of avenging heaven, And all the pale tribes halting in the train Of vice and heedless pleasure: or if aught The comet's glare amid the burning sky, Mournful eclipse, or planets ill-combin'd, Portend disastrous to the vital world; Thy salutary power averts their rage, Averts the general bane: and but for thee Nature would sicken, nature soon would die.


 * Without thy chearful active energy

No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings, No more the maids of Helicon delight. Come then with me, O Goddess heavenly-gay! Begin the song; and let it sweetly flow, And let it wisely teach thy wholesom laws: Rh