But let the man, whofe bones are thinly clad,
With cheerful eafe and fucculent repaft
Improve his flender habit. Each extreme
From the bleft mean of fanity departs.

I could relate what table this demands
Or that complexion; what the various pow'rs
Of various foods: but fifty years would roll,
And fifty more, before the tale were done.
Befides, there often lurks fome nameless, frange,
Peculiar thing; nor on the fkin difplay'd,
Felt in the pulfe, nor in the habit feen;
Which finds a poifon in the food that most
The temp'rature affects. There are, whose blood
Impetuous rages thro' the turgid veins,
Who better bear the fiery fruits of Ind
Than the moift Melon, or pale Cucumber,
Of chilly nature others fly the board
Supplied with flaughter; and the vernal pow'rs
For cooler, kinder, fuftenance implore.
Some ev'n the gen'rous nutriment deteft
Which, in the thell, the fleeping embryo rears.
Some, more unhappy fill, repent the gifts
Of Pales-foft, delicious, and benign;
The balmy quinteffence of ev'ry flow'r,
And ev'ry grateful herb that decks the fpring;
The foft'ring dew of tender fprouting life;
The best refection of declining age;
The kind restorative of thofe who lie
Half dead, and panting from the doubtful ftrife
Of nature ftruggling in the grafp of death.
Try all the bounties of this fertile globe,
There is not fuch a falutary food

As fuits with ev'ry ftomach. But (except
Amid the mingled mafs of fifh and fowl,
And boil'd and bak'd, you hefitate by which
You funk opprefs'd, or whether not by all),
Taught by experience, foon you may difcern
What pleafes, what offends. Avoid the cates
Vol. V. 17.

B

That

That lull the ficken'd appetite too long;
Or heave with fev'rifh flufhings all the face,
Burn in the palms, and parch the rough'ning tongue;
Or much diminish or too much increase.1.1
Th'expence, which nature's wife economy,
Without or walte or avarice, maintains. en ver
Such cates abjur'd, let prowling hunger loofe,
And bid the curious palate roam at will;
They fcarce can err amid the various flores
That burst the teeming entrails of the world.

J

Led by fagacious tafle, the ruthless king Of beafts on blood and flaughter only lives; The tiger, form'd alike to cruel meals, Would at the manger ftarve: of milder feeds, The generous horfe to herbage and to grain Confines his with; tho' fabling Greece refound The Thracian fleeds with human carnage wild. Prompted by instinct's never-erring pow'r, rotafod W Each creature knows its proper aliment ; But man, th'inhabitant of ev'ry clime, With all the commoners of nature feeds. Directed, bounded, by this pow'r within,!

dT

T

118

Their cravings are well aim'd: voluptuous Man led 10 Is by fuperior faculties mifled,

Milled from pleasure e'en in queft of joy,
Sated with nature's boons, what thousands feek,
With dishes tortur'd from their native tafte,
And mad variety, to fpur beyond
Its wifer will the jaded appetite!

T

Is this for pleasure? Learn a jufter tafte;
And know, that temperance is true luxury.
Or is it pride? Pursue fome nobler aim :
Difmifs your parafites, who praife for hire
And earn the fair efteem of honeft men,
Whofe praife is fame.
Form'd of fuch clay as yours
The fick, the famish'd, fhiver at your gates.
Even modeft want
may blefs your hand unfeen,
Tho' hufh'd in patient wretchedness at home.
Is there no virgin grac'd with ev'ry charm

od sit

But,

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"

But that which binds the mercenary vow?
No youth of genius, whofe neglected bloom
Unfofter'd fickens in the barren fhade?
No worthy man, by fortune's random blows,
Or by a heart too gen'rous and humane,
Conftrain'd to leave his happy natal feat,
And figh for wants more bitter than his own?
There are, while human miferies abound.
A thousand ways to wafte fuperfluous wealth,
Without one fool or flatterer at your board,
Without one hour of fickness or difguft.

But other, ills th' ambiguous feaft purfue,
Befides provoking the lafcivious tafte,
Such various foods, tho' harmless each alone,
Each other violate, and oft we fee

What ftrife is brew'd, and what pernicious bane,
From combinations of innoxious things.

Th' unbounded tafte I mean not to confine
To hermit's diet, needle fsly fevere.

But would you long the fweets of health enjoy,
Or husband pleasure; at one impious meal
Exhauft not half the bounties of the year,
Of ev'ry realm. It matters not meanwhile
How much to-morrow differ from to-day;
So far indulge: 'tis fit, befides, that man,
To chauge obnoxious, be to change inur'd.
But ftay the curious appetite, and tafte
With caution fruits you never tried before.
For want of ufe, the kindeft alimenter
Sometimes offends; while cuflom tames the rage
Of poifon to mild amity with life.

So Heaven has form'd us to the general tafte
Of all its gifts, fo cuftom has improv'd
This bent of nature, that few fimple foods"
Of all that earth, or air, or ocean yield,
But by excefs offend. Beyond the fenfe
Of light refection, at the genial board d
Indulge not often: nor protract the feast

B 2

To

T

To dull fatiety till foft and flow
A drowfy death creeps on, th'expanfive foul bust ove
Opprefs'd, and fmother d the celeftial fire.
The ftomach, urg'd beyond its active tone,
Hardly to nutrimental chyle fubdues
The fofteft food; unfinit'd and depraved,
The chyle in all its future wand'rings owns
Its turbid fountain; not by purer fireams A
So to be clear'd, but foulnefs will remain.
To fparkling wine what ferment can exalt
Th'unripen'd grape ? Or what mechanic (kill
From the crude ore can fpin the ductile gold P

Grofs riot treasures up a wealthy fund
Of plagues but more immedicable ills
Attend the lean extreme.

For phyfic knows

How to difburden the too tumid veins,
E'vn how to ripen the half-labour'd blood:
But to unlock the elemental tubes,
Collaps'd and fhrunk with long inanity,"
And with balfamic nutriment repair
The dried and worn-out habit, were to bid
Old age grow green, and wear a fecond fpring;
Or the tall afh, long ravish'd from the foil,
Thro' w ther'd veins imbibe the vernal dew.
When hunger calls, obey; nor often wait
Till hunger fharpen to corrofive pain:
For the keen appetite will feaft beyond
What nature well can bear; and one extreme
Ne'er without danger meets its own reverfe.
Too greedily th' exhausted veins abforb
The recent chyle, and load enfeebled pow'rs
Oft to th' extinction of the vital flame.
To the pale cities, by the firm-fet fiege
And famine humbled, may this verse be borne.
And hear, ye hardieft fons that Albion breeds!
Long tofs'd and famifh'd on the wintry main
The war fhook off, or hofpitable fhore
Attain'd, with temp rance bear the fhock of joy ;

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J LT

Nor

Nor crown with feftive rites th'aufpicious day:
Such fealt might prove more fatal than the waves,
Than war or famine. While the vital fire
Burns, feebly heap not the green fuel on;
But prudently foment the wand'ring fpark
With what the fooneft feels its kindred touch:
Be frugal e'en of that; a little give-

At first; that kindled, add a little more;
Till, by delib'rate nourishing, the flame
Reviv'd with all its wonted vigour glows.

But tho' the two (the full and the jejune)
Extremes have each their vice; it much avails
Ever with gentle tide to ebb and flow
From this to that: fo nature learns to bear
Whatever chance or headlong appetite
May bring. Befides, a meagre day fubdues.
The cruder clods by floth or luxury
Collected, and unloads the wheels of life.
Sometimes a coy averfion to the feast
Comes on, while yet no blacker omen low'rs;
Then is a time to fhun the tempting board,
Were it your natal or your nuptial day,
Perhaps a faft fo feasonable ftarves

The latent feeds of woe, which rooted once
Might coft you labour. But, the day return'd
Of feftal luxury, the wife indulge

Most in the tender vegetable breed:

Then chiefly when the fummer beams inflame
The brazen heavens, or angry Sirius fheds
A fev'rifh taint thro' the ftill gulph of air,
The moift cool viands then, and flowing cup
From the fresh dairy-virgin's lib'ral hand,
Will fave your head from harm, tho' round the world
The dreaded Caufos rolls his wafteful fires.
Pale humid Winter loves the gen'rous board,
The meal more copious. and a warmer fare;
And longs with old wood and old wine to cheer
His quaking heart. The feafons which divide

B 3

*The burning fever.

Th