B. III.
Preserving HEALTH.
75
Forbear! No other pestilence has driven
Such myriads o'er th' irremeable deep.
225Why this so fatal, the sagacious muse
Thro' nature's cunning labyrinths could trace:
But there are secrets which who knows not now,
Must, ere he reach them, climb the heapy Alps
Of science; and devote seven years to toil.
230Besides, I would not stun your patient ears
With what it little boots you to attain.
He knows enough, the mariner, who knows
Where lurk the shelves, and where the whirlpools boil,
What signs portend the storm: To subtler minds
235He leaves to scan, from what mysterious cause
Charybdis rages in th' Ionian wave;
Whence those impetuous currents in the main,
Which neither oar nor sail can stem; and why
L 2
The
