Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/55

B. II. Stretch their extravagant arms athwart the gloom. Are these the confines of some fairy world? A land of Genii? Say, beyond these wilds What unknown nations? If indeed beyond Aught habitable lies.And whither leads, To what strange regions, or of bliss or pain, That subterraneous way? Propitious maids, Conduct me, while with fearful steps I tread This trembling ground. The task remains to sing Your gifts, (so Pæon, so the powers of health Command) to praise your chrystal element: The chief ingredient in heaven's various works; Whose flexile genius sparkles in the gem, Grows firm in oak, and fugitive in wine; The vehicle, the source, of nutriment And life, to all that vegitate or live.

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