Sons of Appelles, wou'd you draw the Face And Shape of Venus, and with equal Grace In some Elysian Field the Figure place? Your Fancy, warm'd by TEA, with wish'd success, Shall Beauty's Queen in all her Charms express; With Nature's Rural Pride your Landscape fill The Shady Grotto, and the Sunny Hill, The Laughing Meadow, and the Talking Rill. Sons of the Muses, would you Charm the Plains With Chearful Lays, or Sweet Condoling Strains; Or with a Sonnet make the Vallies ring, To Welcome home the Goddess of the Spring? Or wou'd you in sublimer Themes engage, And sing of Worthies who adorn the Age? Or, with Promethean Boldness, wou'd aspire To Catch a Spark of the Celestial Fire That Crowned the Royal Conquest, and could raise Juverne's Boyn above Scamander's Praise? Drink, drink Inspiring TEA, and boldly draw A Hercules, a Mars, or a NASSAU. _THE TEA-TABLE_ Hail, Queen of Plants, Pride of Elysian Bow'rs! How shall we speak thy complicated Pow'rs? Thou Won'drous Panacea to asswage The Calentures of Youths' fermenting rage, And Animate the freezing Veins of age. To Bacchus when our Griefs repair for Ease, The Remedy proves worse than the Disease. Where Reason we must lose to keep the Round, And drinking others Health's, our own confound: Whilst TEA, our Sorrows to beguile, Sobriety and Mirth does reconcile: For to this Nectar we the Blessing owe, To grow more Wise, as we more Cheerful grow. Whilst fancy does her brightest beams dispense, And decent Wit diverts without Offense. Then in Discourse of Nature's mystick Pow'rs And Noblest Themes, we pass the well spent Hours. Whilst all around the Virtues' Sacred Band, And list'ning Graces, pleas'd Attendants, stand. Thus our Tea-Conversation we employ, Where with Delight, Instruction we enjoy; Quaffing, without the waste of Time or Wealth, The Sov'reign Drink of Pleasure and of Health. _DR. JOHNSON'S AFFINITY_ DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON drew his own portrait thus: "A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who for twenty years diluted his meals with the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle had scarcely time to cool; who with tea amused the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with tea welcomed the morning." _EARLIEST MENTION OF TEA_