Then learn to revel; but by flow degrees : By flow degrees the liberal arts are won ; And Hercules grew strong. But when you smooth The brows of care, indulge your festive vein
In cups by well inform'd experience found
The least your bane; and only with your friends; There are sweet follies; frailties to be seen By friends alone, and men of generous minds.
Oh! seldom may the fated hours return Of drinking deep! I would not daily taste, Except when life declines, even fober cups. For know, whate'er
Beyond its natural fervour hurries on The fanguine tide; whether the frequent bowl, High-season'd fare, or exercise to toil Protracted, spurs to its last stage tir'd life, And fows the temples with untimely snow.
Our author ends this book with some sublime reflections on the mutability and decay of all things; and then enters on exercise, the subject of his third book; which tho barren, and one would think incapable of many ornaments, is yet made agreeable by his manner of treating it; for in this, as well as in the last, he has, like an able sculptor, drawn harmony, beauty, and expression, out of very rude and unpromising materials.
This book is address'd to those of a delicate frame; to whom he thus points out the importance of exercise.
Behold the labourer of the glebe, who toils In dust, in rain, in cold and fultry skies: Save but the grain from mildews and the flood, Nought anxious he what fickly stars ascend. He knows no laws by Esculapius given ; He studies none. Yet him nor midnight fogs Infest, nor those envenom'd shafts that fly When rapid Sirius fires th' autumnal noon. His habit pure, with plain and temperate meals, Robust with labour, and by custom steel'd
To ev'ry casualty of vary'd life;
Serene he bears the peevish eastern blast, And uninfected breathes the mortal south.
Toil, and be strong. By toil the flaccid nerves Grow firm, and gain a more compacted tone; The greener juices are by toil subdu'd, Mellow'd, and subtilis'd; the vapid old Expell'd, and all the rancour of the blood. Come, my companions, ye who feel the charms Of nature and the year; come, let us ftray Where chance or fancy leads our roving walk. Go, climb the mountain; from th' ethereal source Imbibe the recent gale. The chearful morn Beams o'er the hills; go, mount th' exulting steed. Already, fee, the deep-mouth'd beagles catch The tainted mazes; and, on eager sport Intent, with emulous impatience try Each doubtful trace. Or, if a nobler prey Delight you more, go chase the desp'rate deer; And thro' its deepest solitudes awake The vocal forefst with the jovial horn.
But should this exercise be too laborious, he invites us to the brook, and here pays a grateful tribute to the river Liddal, which waters the place of his nativity, and in which he has often employed himself in fishing and swimming; or should you think these diverfions of hunting and fishing inhumane and barbarous, as the author observes the Pythagoreans did, and some of the Indians now do, he leads you to the gardens soft ausement and humane delight, there to partake of the exercise which employ'd the first parents of mankind. From this the author deviates to the pleasures of rural life and conversation, and concludes the digression with these hospitable lines.
His neighbours lift the latch, and bless unbid His festal roof; while, o'er the light repast, And fprightly cups, they mix in social joy; And, thro' the maze of conversation, trace Whate'er amuses or improves the mind.
Sometimes at eve (for I delight to tafte The native zest and flavour of the fruit, Where sense grows wild and takes of no manure) The decent, honest, chearful husbandman Should drown his labours in my friendly bowl; And at my table find himself at home.
He then returns to his subject and recommends tennis, dancing, and shooting; but in the choice of exercise advises every person to indulge his own taste.
He chuses best, whose labour entertains His vacant fancy most: The toil you hate Fatigues you foon, and scarce improves your limbs.
After he has treated of the importance and choice of exercise, he introduces these precepts for our conduct.
Begin with gentle toils; and, as your nerves Grow firm, to hardier by just steps aspire. The prudent, even in every moderate walk, At firit but faunter; and by flow degrees Increase their pace. This doctrine of the wife Well knows the master of the flying steed. When all at once from indolence to toil You spring, the fibres by the hafty shock Are tir'd and crack'd, before their unctuous coat, Compress'd, can pour the lubricating balm. Besides, collected in the passive veins, The purple mass a sudden torrent rolls, O'erpowers the heart, and deluges the lungs With dangerous inundation.-
But when the hard varieties of life You toil to learn; or try the dusty chase; Or the warm deeds of some important day; Hot from the field, indulge not yet your limbs In wish'd repose; nor court the fanning gale, Nor taste the spring. O! by the sacred tears Of widows, orphans, mothers, sisters, fires, Forbear! No other pestilence has driven Such myriads o'er th'irremeable deep.
He then descends to bathing, and recommends a proper use of the cold bath in our climate to those whose constitutions will admit of it.
Against the rigors of a damp cold heav'n To fortify their bodies, some frequent The gelid cistern; and, where nought forbids, I praise their dauntless heart.
But to those who live in sultry climes a frequent use of the warm bath is recommended, and sometimes in our own; where it is of the greatest consequence to health as well as beauty.
Let those who from the frozen Arctos reach Parch'd Mauritania, or the sultry west, Or the wide flood that waters Indoftan, Plunge thrice a day, and in the tepid wave Untwift their stubborn pores; that full and free 'Th'evaporation thro' the soften'd skin May bear proportion to the swelling blood. With us, the man of no complaint demands The warm ablution just enough to clear 'The fluices of the skin, enough to keep 'The body facred from indecent soil.
He then speaks of the hours and seasons fit for exer. cise; advises labour when fafting, or when the ftomach is but lightly fed, to those of a corpulent frame; whereas exercise after the meat is digested, and before hunger returns, is best for those of a lean habit: But all are to abstain from labour immediately after a full meal.
But from the recent meal no labours please, Of limbs or mind. For now the cordial powers Claim all the wandring spirits to a work Of strong and subtle toil, and great event: A work of time and you may rue the day You hurry'd, with untimely exercise, A half concocted chyle into the blood. The body over-charged with unctuous phlegm Much toil demands: the lean elastic less.
While winter chills the blood, and binds the veins, No labours are too hard by those you 'scape The flow diseases of the torpid year; But from the burning Lion when the fun Pours down his sultry wrath, now while the blood Too much already maddens in the veins, And all the finer fluids thro' the skin Explore their flight; me, near the cool cascade Reclin'd, or sauntring in the lofty grove, No needless flight occasion should engage To pant and sweat beneath the fiery noon. Now the fresh-morn alone and mellow eve To shady walks and active rural sports Invite. But, while the chillings dews descend, May nothing tempt you to the cold embrace. Of humid skies; tho' 'tis no vulgar joy To trace the horrors of the solemn wood, While the foft ev'ning faddens into night : Tho' the sweet poet of the vernal groves Melts all the night in strains of am'rous woe.
And we have the pleasure of rest after labour, and an admonition against eating too much, and too late at night, pointed out in the following beautiful lines.
The shades descend, and midnight o'er the world Expands her fable wings. Great nature droops Thro' all her works. Now happy he whose toil Has o'er his languid pow'rless limbs diffus'd A pleasing laffitude:
But would you sweetly waste the blank of night In deep oblivion; or on fancy's wings Visit the paradise of happy dreams, And waken chearful as the lively morn; Oppress not nature sinking down to rest With feasts too late, too folid, or too full.
This is followed by a caution against misapplying those hours wherein nature intended we should reft; which is heighten'd and made more pleasing, by the beautiful fimile and moral reflection with which it concludes.
« FöregåendeFortsätt » |