Besides, when wine’s quick force has pierc’d the Brain, And the brisk heat’s diffus’d thro’ every Vein, Why do the members all grow dull and weak? The Tongue not with its usual swiftness speak? The Eye-balls swim? the Legs not firm and straight, But bend beneath the Body’s natural weight: Unmanly quarrels, noise, and sobs deface The powers of Reason, and usurp their place. CREECH. As Nature is the subject of Physic and Poetry, we find, that the sons of Homer and Esculapius generally agree in giving salutary instructions to Mankind; but as the former convey their admonitions in the most agreeable manner, I shall conclude this Essay with two quotations from them. The first Physicians by debauch were made, Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade: By chace our long-liv’d Fathers earn’d their food, Toil strung their Nerves and purify’d their Blood, &c. DRYDEN. Quæ virtus et quanta, boni, sit vivere parvo, (Nec meus hic sermo est, sed quem præcepit Ofellus, Rusticus, abnormis sapiens, crassaque Minerva) Discite, non inter lances, mensasque nitentes; Cum stupet insanis acies fulgoribus, & cum Adclinis falsis animus meliora recusat. * * * * * Accipe nunc, victus tenuis quæ, quantaque secum Adferat, imprimis valeas bene: nam variæ res Ut noceant Homini, credas, memor illius escæ Quæ simplex olim tibi sederit, at simul assis Miscueris elixa, simul conchylia turdis; Dulcia se in Bilem vertent, Stomachoque tumultum Lenta ferat pituita. Vides, ut pallidus omnis Cæna desurgat dubia? quin corpus onustum Hesternis vitiis, animumque prægravat una Atque adfigit humo divinæ particulam auræ. Alter, ubi dicto citius curata sopori Membra dedit, vegetus præscripta ad munia surgit. HORAT. Sat. What, and how great the virtue and the art To live on little with a chearful Heart! (A doctrine sage, but truly none of mine) Let’s talk, my friends, but talk before we dine; Not when the gilt buffet’s reflected pride Turns you from sound Philosophy aside, Not when from plate to plate the Eye-balls roll, And the Brain dances to the mantling bowl, * * * * * Now hear what blessings temperance can bring; (Thus said my friend, and what he said I sing) First health: the Stomach cramm’d with ev’ry dish, A tomb of boil’d and roast, and flesh and fish, When Bile and Wind, and Phlegm and Acid jar, And all the Man is one intestine war, Remembers oft the School-boy’s simple fare, The temperate sleeps, and spirits light as air. How pale each worshipful and rev’rend guest Rise from a clergy or a city feast! What life in all that ample Body? say: What heav’nly particle inspires the clay? The soul subsides and wickedly inclines To seem but mortal, ev’n in sound Divines. On morning wings, how active springs the Mind That leaves the load of yesterday behind? POPE. FOOTNOTES: