| Citation |
WR.735.005
27 Jan 1735:11,12 (174)
. . . [Two paras. re. drinking followed by poem:] It was a
usual saying of the great Lord Verulam, that not one man of
a thousand died a natural death; and that most diseases had
their rise and origin from intemperance. Therefore,
Unerring nature learn to follow close,
For quantum sufficit is her just dose;
Sufficient, clogs no wheels and tires no horse,
Yet briskly drives the Blood around the course;
. . . [39 lines]
[discussion of other causes of death (drunkenness, gluttony,
sword, pestilence)] for true is that saying, that he that
goes to the tavern at first for the love of the company,
will at last go thither for the love of liquor: and
therefore it was excellent advice the ingenious Dr. Baynard
gave his Godson,
Pass by a tavern-door, my son,
This sacred truth write on thy heart;
'Tis easier company to shun,
Than at a pint it is to part.
. . . [32 lines]
Many a soul with great difficulty lugs on a weak and worn-
out carkass to its daily rendezvous, who perhaps for many
years has been nothing else but the vintner's conveniencer
to carry his liquors between the hogshead and the piss-pot.
But when alas! Men come to die
Of dropsy, jaundice, sione or gout,
When the black Reckoning draws nigh,
And life (before the bottle)'s out :
. . . [12 lines]
I cannot better close this epistle, than as the same author
observes the old Romans to have done, to their Friends.
Cura ut Valens: For Health once gone,
All comforts perish with it and are none;
Riches, and honour, musick, wine and wit ,
Was flat and tasteless with the loss of it.
. . . [13 lines]
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