Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/132

124 Toy'd into care your unsuspecting heart: It found a liking there, a sportful fire, And that fomented into serious love; Which musing daily strengthens and improves Thro' all the heights of fondness and romance: And you're undone, the fatal shaft has sped, If once you doubt whether you love or no. The body wastes away; th' infected mind, Dissolv'd in female tenderness, forgets Each manly virtue, and grows dead to fame. Sweet heaven from such intoxicating charms Defend all worthy breasts! Not that I deem Love always dangerous, always to be shun'd. Love well repaid, and not too weakly sunk In wanton and unmanly tenderness, Adds bloom to Health; o'er every virtue sheds A gay, humane, and amiable grace, And brightens all the ornaments of man. Rh