Quæ virtus et quanta, boni, sit vivere parvo,
(Nec meus hic sermo est, sed quem præcepit Ofellus,
Rusticus, abnormis sapiens, crassaque Minerva)
Discite, non inter lances, mensasque nitentes;
Cum stupet insanis acies fulgoribus, & cum
Adclinis falsis animus meliora recusat.
* * * * *
Accipe nunc, victus tenuis quæ, quantaque secum
Adferat, imprimis valeas bene: nam variæ res
Ut noceant Homini, credas, memor illius escæ
Quæ simplex olim tibi sederit, at simul assis
Miscueris elixa, simul conchylia turdis;
Dulcia se in Bilem vertent, Stomachoque tumultum
Lenta ferat pituita. Vides, ut pallidus omnis
Cæna desurgat dubia? quin corpus onustum
Hesternis vitiis, animumque prægravat una
Atque adfigit humo divinæ particulam auræ.
Alter, ubi dicto citius curata sopori
Membra dedit, vegetus præscripta ad munia surgit.
HORAT. Sat.
What, and how great the virtue and the art
To live on little with a chearful Heart!
(A doctrine sage, but truly none of mine)
Let’s talk, my friends, but talk before we dine;
Not when the gilt buffet’s reflected pride
Turns you from sound Philosophy aside,
Not when from plate to plate the Eye-balls roll,
And the Brain dances to the mantling bowl,
* * * * *
Now hear what blessings temperance can bring;
(Thus said my friend, and what he said I sing)
First health: the Stomach cramm’d with ev’ry dish,
A tomb of boil’d and roast, and flesh and fish,
When Bile and Wind, and Phlegm and Acid jar,
And all the Man is one intestine war,
Remembers oft the School-boy’s simple fare,
The temperate sleeps, and spirits light as air.
How pale each worshipful and rev’rend guest
Rise from a clergy or a city feast!
What life in all that ample Body? say:
What heav’nly particle inspires the clay?
The soul subsides and wickedly inclines
To seem but mortal, ev’n in sound Divines.
On morning wings, how active springs the Mind
That leaves the load of yesterday behind?