T

Who better bear the fiery fruits of Ind
Than the moist melon or pale cucumber:
Of chilly nature others fly the board
Supply'd with slaughter, and the vernal pow'rs
For cooler kinder sustenance implore:
Some ev'n the gen'rous nutriment detest
Which in the shell the sleeping embryo rears;
Some, more unhappy still, repent the gifts
Of Pales, soft, delicious, and benign, ontol
The baliny quintessence of ev'ry flow'r, 115
And ev'ry grateful herb that decks the spring,
The fost'ring dew of tender sprouting life,
The best refection of declining age,

125

The kind restorative of those who lie
Half dead and panting, from the doubtful strife 120
Of nature struggling in the grasp of death.
Try all the bounties of this fertile globe
There is not such a salutary food
As suits with ev'ry stomach: but (except
Amid the mingled mass of fish and fowl,
And boil'd and bak'd, you hesitate by which
You sunk oppress'd, or whether not by all)
Taught by experience soon you may discern
What pleases what offends. Avoid the cates
That lull the sicken'd appetite too long,
Or heave with fev'rish flushings all the face,
Burn in the palms, and parch the rough'ning tongue,
Or much diminish or too much increase

130

Th'

135

140

expense which Nature's wise economy Without or waste or avarice maintains. Such cates abjur'd let prowling Hunger loose, And bid the curious palate roam at will; They scarce can err amid the various stores That burst the teeming entrails of the world. Led by sagacious taste the ruthless king Of beasts on blood and slaughter only lives; The tiger, form'd alike to cruel meals, Would at the manger starve; of milder seeds The generous horse to herbage and to grain Confines his wish, tho' fabling Greece resound 145 The Thracian steeds with human carnage wild. Prompted by Instinct's never-erring pow'r Each creature knows its proper aliment; But man, th' inhabitant of every clime, With all the commoners of Nature feeds. Directed, bounded, by this pow'r within Their cravings are well aim'd. Voluptuous man Is by superior faculties misled,

Misled from pleasure ev'n in quest of joy....

150

Sated with Nature's boons, what thousands seek, i
With dishes tortur'd from their native taste
And mad variety, to spur beyond
Its wiser will the jaded appetite!

156

Is this for pleasure? learn a juster taste,
And know that temp'rance is true luxury:
Or is it pride? pursue some nobler aim;

C

760

170

Dismiss your parasites who praise for hire,
And earn the fair esteem of honest men,
Whose praise is fame. Form'd of such clay as yours
The sick, the needy shiver at your gates; 165
Ev'n modest Want may bless your hand unseen,
Tho' hush'd in patient wretchedness at home.
Is there no virgin grae'd with ev'ry charm
But that which binds the mercenary vow?
No youth of genius whose neglected bloom
Unfoster'd sickens in the barren shade ?
No worthy man by Fortune's random blows,
Or by a heart too gen'rous and humané,
Constrain'd to leave his happy natal seat,
And sigh for wants more bitter than his own? 175
There are while human miseries abound
A thousand ways to waste superfluous wealth
Without one fool or flatt'rer at your board,
Without one hour of sickness or disgust.

But other ills th' ambiguous feast pursue

Besides provoking the lascivious taste.
Such various foods tho' harmless each alone
Each other violate, and oft we see

180

185

What strife is brew'd, and what pernicious bane
From combinations of innoxious things.
Th' unbounded taste I mean not to confine
To hermit's Diet needlessly severe :

But would you long the sweets of Health enjoy
Or husband pleasure, at one impious meal
Exhaust not half the bounties of the year

190

195

Of every realm. It matters not mean-while
How much to-morrow differ from to-day;
So far indulge it is fit besides that man,
To change obnoxious, be to change inur'd:
But stay the curious appetite, and taste
With caution fruits you never try'd before:
For want of use the kindest aliment
Sometimes offends, while custom tames the rage
Of poison to mild amity with life.
199
So Heav'n has form'd us to the genʼral taste
Of all its gifts, so custom has improv'd
This bent of Nature, that few simple foods
Of all that earth, or air, or ocean, yield
But by excess offend. Beyond the sense
Of light refection at the genial board
Indulge not often, nor protract the feast
To dull satiety, till soft and slow
A drowsy death creeps on, th' expansive soul
Oppress'd and smother'd the celestial fire.
The stomach urg'd beyond its active tone
Hardly to nutrimental chyle subdues
The softest food; unfinish'd and deprav'd,
The chyle in all its future wand'rings owns
Its turbid fountain, not by purer streams
So to be clear'd but foulness will remain.
To sparkling wine what ferment can exalt
Th' unripen'd grape ? or what mechanic skill
From the crude ore can spin the ductile gold?

: 205

210

215

S

T

B

B

Gross riot treasures up a wealthy fund
Of plagues, but more immedicable ills
Attend the lean extreme for physic knows
How to disburden the too tumid veins,
Ev'n how to ripen the half-labour'd blood;
But to unlock the elemental tubes
Collaps'd and shrunk with long inanity,
And with balsamic nutriment repair
The dry'd and worn-out habit, were to bid
Old age grow green and wear a second spring,
Or the tall ash long ravish'd from the soil
Thro' wither'd veins imbibe the vernal due.
When hunger calls obey, nor often wait!
Till hunger sharpen to corrosive pain;
For the keen appetite will feast beyond
What nature well can bear, and one extreme
Ne'er without danger meets its own reverse,
Too greedily th' exhausted veins absorb
The recent chyle, and load enfeebled pow'rs
Oft to th' extinction of the vital flame.
To the pale cities by the firm-set siege

220

225

230

235

And famine humbled may this verse be borne; 240
And hear ye hardiest Sons that Albion breeds,
Long toss'd and famish'd on the wintry main !
The war shook off, or hospitable shore

Attain'd, with temp'rance bear the shock of joy,
Nor crown with festive rites th' auspicious day'; 245