480The two great periods of th' important year,
Are in their first approaches seldom safe:
Funereal autumn all the sickly dread,
And the black fates deform the lovely spring.
He well advis'd, who taught our wiser sires
485Early to borrow Muscovy's warm spoils,
Ere the first frost has touch'd the tender blade;
And late resign them, tho' the wanton spring
Should deck her charms with all her sister's rays.
For while the effluence of the skin maintains
490Its native measure, the pleuritic Spring
Glides harmless by; and Autumn, sick to death
With fallow Quartans, no contagion breathes.
I in prophetic numbers could unfold
The omens of the year: what seasons teem
495With what diseases; what the humid South
Prepares, and what the Dæmon of the East:
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The ART of
B. III.
But
