Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/85

For thro' the small arterial mouths, that pierce
In endless millions the close-woven skin,
The baser fluids in a constant stream
Escape, and viewless melt into the winds.
260While this eternal, this most copious waste
Of blood degenerate into vapid brine,
Maintains its wonted measure; all the powers
Of health befriend you, all the wheels of life
With ease and pleasure move: But this restrain'd
265Or more or less, so more or less you feel
The functions labour. From this fatal source
What woes descend is never to be sung.
To take their numbers, were to count the sands
That ride in whirlwind the parch'd Lybian air;
270Or waves that, when the blustering North embroils
The Baltic, thunder on the German shore.
Subject not then, by soft emollient arts,
This grand expence, on which your fates depend