With an appetite, thus, down to dinner you sit,
Where the chief of the feast is the flow of your wit:
Let this be indulg'd, and let laughter go round;
As it pleases your mind, to your health 'twill redound.
After dinner two glasses at least, I approve;

Name the first to the king, and the last to your love :
Thus cheerful with wisdom, with innocence gay,
And calm with your joys gently glide through the

day.

The dews of the evening most carefully shun;

Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun.
Then in chat or at play, with a dance, or a song,
Let the night, like the day, pass with pleasure along.
All cares, but of love, banish far from your mind;
And those you may end, when you please to be kind.

EPISTLE XII.

FROM

J. BRAMSTON

то

CAPTAIN HINTON.

HINTON, old Friend, accept from me
The following rules without a fee:
An asthma is your case, I think,

So

you must neither eat nor drink; I mean, of meats preserv'd in salt, Nor any liquor made of malt;

From season'd sauce avert your eyes,
From hams, and tongues, and pigeon-pies;
If venison-pasty's set before you,
Each bit you eat-memento mori.

Your suppers, nothing, if you please,
But above all, no toasted cheese.
And now, perhaps, you may observe,
What I prescribe will make you starve:
No-I allow you at a meal

A leg, a loin, or neck of veal;

Young turkies-I allow you four,

Partridge and pullets half a score;
Of house-lamb boil'd eat quarters two;
The devil's in't if this wont do.-

Now, as to liquor-why indeed, What I prescribe, I send you-Mead; Glasses of wine (t' extinguish drought) Take three with water, three without. Let constant exercise be tried,

And sometimes walk, and sometimes ride;
Health oftner comes from Blackdownhill,
Than from th' apothecary's bill..

Some, if they are not cur'd at once,
Proclaim their doctor for a dunce:

Restless from quack to quack they range,
When 'tis themselves they ought to change.

Rules and restraints you must endure,

What comes by time, 'tis time must cure.

The use of vegetables try,

And prize Pomona in a pye :

Young Bacchus' rites you must avoid,

And Venus must go unenjoy'd :

Whate'er you take, put something good in,

And worship Ceres in a pudding.

For breakfast, it is my advice,

Eat sago, gruel, barley, rice;
Take burdock roots, and, by my troth,

I'd mingle daisies in my broth.

Thus may you draw with ease your breath, Deluding, what you dread not, death; Thus may you laugh, look clear, and thrive, Enrich'd by those whom you survive. May dying friends, with one accord, Worth and Sincerity reward.

FROM

T. H.

ΤΟ

SIR HANS SLOANE, BART.

SINCE dear Doctor, sav'd my life,

you,

By turns to bless and curse my wife;
In conscience I'm oblig'd to do,
What your commands enjoin'd me to :
According then to your command,
That I should search the western land,
And send you all that I can find

Of curious things of every kind;

I've ravag'd air, earth, sea, and caverns, Wine, women, children, tombs and taverns; And greater rarities can shew

Than Gresham's children ever knew ; Which carrier Dick shall bring you down, Next time the waggon comes to town.

First, I have drops of the same shower Which Jove in Danae's lap did pour;