Page:The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books.djvu/38

The languid stomach curses even the pure
Delicious fat, and all the race of oil;
For more the oily aliments relax
80Its feeble tone; and with the eager lymph
(Fond to incorporate with all it meets)
Coily they mix; and shun with slippery wiles
The wooed embrace. Th' irresoluble oil,
So gentle late and blandishing, in floods
85Of rancid bile o'erflows: What tumults hence,
What horrors rise, were nauseous to relate.
Chuse leaner viands, ye of jovial make!
Chuse sober meals; and rouse to active life
Your cumbrous clay; nor on th' enfeebling down,
90Irresolute, protract the morning hours.
But let the man, whose bones are thinly clad,
With chearful ease, and succulent repast
Improve his slender habit. Each extreme
From the blest mean of sanity departs.