The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books. John Armstrong

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      I. Air

       Table of Contents

      THE

      ART

       Table of Contents

      OF PRESERVING

      HEALTH.

       Table of Contents

      BOOK I.

      AIR.

       Table of Contents

      Daughter of Pæon, queen of every joy,

Hygeia^[1]; whose indulgent smile sustains The various race luxuriant nature pours, And on th' immortal essences bestows 5Immortal youth; auspicious, O descend! Thou, chearful guardian of the rolling year, Whether thou wanton'st on the western gale,

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      Or shak'st the rigid pinions of the north,

       Diffusest life and vigour thro' the tracts

      10Of air, thro' earth, and ocean's deep domain.

       When thro' the blue serenity of heav'n

       Thy power approaches, all the wasteful host

       Of pain and sickness, squallid and deform'd,

       Confounded sink into the loathsom gloom,

      15Where in deep Erebus involv'd the fiends

       Grow more profane. Whatever shapes of death,

       Shook from the hideous chambers of the globe,

       Swarm thro' the shuddering air: whatever plagues

       Or meagre famine breeds, or with slow wings

      20Rise from the putrid watry element,

       The damp waste forest, motionless and rank,

       That smothers earth and all the breathless winds.

       Or the vile carnage of th' inhuman field;

       Whatever baneful breathes the rotten south;

      25Whatever ills th' extremes or sudden change

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      Of cold and hot, or moist and dry produce;

       They fly thy pure effulgence: they, and all

       The secret poisons of avenging heaven,

       And all the pale tribes halting in the train

      30Of vice and heedless pleasure: or if aught

       The comet's glare amid the burning sky,

       Mournful eclipse, or planets ill-combin'd,

       Portend disastrous to the vital world;

       Thy salutary power averts their rage,

      35Averts the general bane: and but for thee

       Nature would sicken, nature soon would die.

      Without thy chearful active energy

       No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings,

       No more the maids of Helicon delight.

      40Come then with me, O Goddess heavenly-gay!

       Begin the song; and let it sweetly flow,

       And let it wisely teach thy wholesom laws:

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      "How best the fickle fabric to support

       "Of mortal man; in healthful body how

      45"A healthful mind the longest to maintain."

       'Tis hard, in such a strife of rules, to chuse

       The best, and those of most extensive use;

       Harder in clear and animated song

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