Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/95

430The body, fresh and vigorous from repose,
Defies the early fogs: but, by the toils
Of wakeful day, exhausted and unstrung,
Weakly resists the nights unwholsome breath.
The grand discharge, th' effusion of the skin,
435Slowly impair'd, the languid maladies
Creep on, and thro' the sickning functions steal
So, when the chilling East invades the spring,
The delicate Narcissus pines away
In hectic languor; and a slow disease
440Taints all the family of flowers, condemn'd
To cruel heav'ns. But why, already prone
To fade, should beauty cherish its own bane?
O shame! O pity! nipt with pale Quadrille,
And midnight cares, the bloom of Albion dies!

445By toil subdu'd, the Warrior and the Hind
Sleep fast and deep; their active functions soon