Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/125

B. IV. Him even the dissolute admir'd; for he A graceful looseness when he pleas 'd put on, And laughing cou'd instruct. Much had he read. Much more had seen; he studied from the life. And in th' original perus'd mankind.


 * Vers'd in the woes and vanities of life,

He pitied man: And much he pitied those Whom falsely-smiling fate has curs'd with means To dissipate their days in quest of joy. Our aim is Happiness; 'tis yours, 'tis mine, He said, 'tis the pursuit of all that live; Yet few attain it, if 'twas e'er attain'd. But they the widest wander from the mark, Who thro' the flow'ry paths of saunt'ring Joy Seek this coy Goddess; that from stage to stage Invites us still, but shifts as we pursue. For, not to name the pains that pleasure brings Rh