Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/125

Him even the dissolute admir'd; for he
230A graceful looseness when he pleas 'd put on,
And laughing cou'd instruct. Much had he read.
Much more had seen; he studied from the life.
And in th' original perus'd mankind.

Vers'd in the woes and vanities of life,
235He pitied man: And much he pitied those
Whom falsely-smiling fate has curs'd with means
To dissipate their days in quest of joy.
Our aim is Happiness; 'tis yours, 'tis mine,
He said, 'tis the pursuit of all that live;
240Yet few attain it, if 'twas e'er attain'd.
But they the widest wander from the mark,
Who thro' the flow'ry paths of saunt'ring Joy
Seek this coy Goddess; that from stage to stage
Invites us still, but shifts as we pursue.
245For, not to name the pains that pleasure brings