Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/132

Toy'd into care your unsuspecting heart:
It found a liking there, a sportful fire,
And that fomented into serious love;
350Which musing daily strengthens and improves
Thro' all the heights of fondness and romance:
And you're undone, the fatal shaft has sped,
If once you doubt whether you love or no.
The body wastes away; th' infected mind,
355Dissolv'd in female tenderness, forgets
Each manly virtue, and grows dead to fame.
Sweet heaven from such intoxicating charms
Defend all worthy breasts! Not that I deem
Love always dangerous, always to be shun'd.
360Love well repaid, and not too weakly sunk
In wanton and unmanly tenderness,
Adds bloom to Health; o'er every virtue sheds
A gay, humane, and amiable grace,
And brightens all the ornaments of man.