80
The ART of
B. III.
Grow too familiar: For by frequent use
310The strongest medicines lose their healing power,
And even the surest poisons theirs to kill.
Let those who from the frozen Arctos reach
Parch'd Mauritania, or the sultry West,
Or the wide flood that waters Indostan,
315Plunge thrice a day, and in the tepid wave
Untwist their stubborn pores; that full and free
Th' evaporation thro' the softned skin
May bear proportion to the swelling blood.
So shall they 'scape the fever's rapid flames;
320So feel untainted the hot breath of hell.
With us, the man of no complaint demands
The warm ablution, just enough to clear
The sluices of the skin, enough to keep
The body sacred from indecent soil.
325Still to be pure, even did it not conduce
1
(As
