The hare in pastures or in plains is found, Emblem of human life; who runs the round, And, after all his wandering ways are done, } His circle fills, and ends where he begun, } Just as the setting meets the rising sun. } Thus princes ease their cares; but happier he, Who seeks not pleasure through necessity, Than such as once on slippery thrones were placed, And chasing, sigh to think themselves are chased. So lived our sires, ere doctors learned to kill, And multiplied with theirs the weekly bill. The first physicians by debauch were made; Excess began, and sloth sustains the trade. Pity the generous kind their cares bestow To search forbidden truths, (a sin to know,) To which if human science could attain, The doom of death, pronounced by God, were vain. In vain the leech would interpose delay; Fate fastens first, and vindicates the prey. What help from art's endeavours can we have? } Guibbons[66] but guesses, nor is sure to save; } But Maurus[67] sweeps whole parishes, and peoples every grave; } And no more mercy to mankind will use, Than when he robbed and murdered Maro's muse. Would'st thou be soon dispatched, and perish whole, Trust Maurus with thy life, and Milbourne with thy soul.[68] By chace our long-lived fathers earned their food; Toil strung the nerves, and purified the blood: But we their sons, a pampered race of men, Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten. Better to hunt in fields, for health unbought, Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. The wise, for care, on exercise depend; God never made his work for man to mend. The tree of knowledge, once in Eden placed, Was easy found, but was forbid the taste: O had our grandsire walked without his wife, He first had sought the better plant of life! Now both are lost: yet, wandering in the dark, Physicians, for the tree, have found the bark; They, labouring for relief of human kind, } With sharpened sight some remedies may find; } The apothecary-train is wholly blind. } From files a random recipe they take, And many deaths of one prescription make. Garth,[69] generous as his muse, prescribes and gives; The shopman sells, and by destruction lives: Ungrateful tribe! who, like the viper's brood, From Med'cine issuing, suck their mother's blood! Let these obey, and let the learned prescribe, That men may die without a double bribe; Let them, but under their superiors, kill, When doctors first have signed the bloody bill; He 'scapes the best, who, nature to repair, Draws physic from the fields, in draughts of vital air. You hoard not health for your own private use, But on the public spend the rich produce. When, often urged, unwilling to be great, Your country calls you from your loved retreat, And sends to senates, charged with common care,