B. III.
Preserving HEALTH.
91
But you perhaps refuse the tedious song.
Besides, whatever plagues in heat, or cold,
Or drought, or moisture dwell, they hurt not you,
500Skill'd to correct the vices of the sky,
And taught already how to each extream
To bend your life. But should the public bane
Infect you, or some trespass of your own,
Or flaw of nature hint mortality:
505Soon as a not unpleasing horror glides
Along the spine, thro' all your torpid limbs;
When first the head throbs, or the stomach feels
A sickly load, a weary pain the loins;
Be Celsus call'd: The fates come rushing on;
510The rapid fates admit of no delay.
While wilful you, and fatally secure,
Expect to morrow's more auspicious fun,
The growing pest, whose infancy was weak
N 2
And
