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    The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books
    The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books
    The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books
    Ebook89 pages55 minutes

    The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books

    By John Armstrong

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    About this ebook

    This is a very old book of poems dating from 1744. The four books are four aspects of what is needed to create and maintain health: Air; Diet; Exercise; The Passions. The first three are straightforward. In 'the passions' Armstrong is really talking about mental health and describes it thus, " it now remains to trace What good what evil from ourselves proceeds: And how the subtle principle within Inspires with health, or mines with strange decay The passive body."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigiCat
    Release dateJul 20, 2022
    ISBN8596547086970
    The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books
    Author

    John Armstrong

    John Armstrong is Philosopher in Residence at the Melbourne Business School and Senior Advisor to the Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University. Born in Glasgow and educated at Oxford and London, he has lived in Australia since 2001. He is the author of several internationally acclaimed books on art, aesthetics and philosophy, including In Search of Civilization, Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy, Love, Life, Goethe: How to be Happy in an Imperfect World, and The Secret Power of Beauty.

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      Book preview

      The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books - John Armstrong

      John Armstrong

      The Art of Preserving Health - A Poem in Four Books

      EAN 8596547086970

      DigiCat, 2022

      Contact: DigiCat@okpublishing.info

      Table of Contents

      I. Air

      II. Diet

      III. Exercise

      IV. The Passions

      LONDON:

      Table of Contents

      Printed for

      A. Millar

      , opposite to Katharine-Street in the Strand.

      MDCCXLIV.

      [Price Four Shillings sewed.]

      Books(not individually listed)

      I. Air

      II. Diet

      III. Exercise

      IV. The Passions

      I. Air

      Table of Contents

      THE

      ART

      Table of Contents

      OF PRESERVING

      HEALTH.

      Table of Contents

      BOOK I.

      AIR.

      Table of Contents

      D

      aughter

      of Pæon, queen of every joy,

      Hygeia

      [1]; whose indulgent smile sustains

      The various race luxuriant nature pours,

      And on th' immortal essences bestows

      5Immortal youth; auspicious, O descend!

      Thou, chearful guardian of the rolling year,

      Whether thou wanton'st on the western gale,

      Or shak'st the rigid pinions of the north,

      Diffusest life and vigour thro' the tracts

      10 Of air, thro' earth, and ocean's deep domain.

      When thro' the blue serenity of heav'n

      Thy power approaches, all the wasteful host

      Of pain and sickness, squallid and deform'd,

      Confounded sink into the loathsom gloom,

      15 Where in deep Erebus involv'd the fiends

      Grow more profane. Whatever shapes of death,

      Shook from the hideous chambers of the globe,

      Swarm thro' the shuddering air: whatever plagues

      Or meagre famine breeds, or with slow wings

      20 Rise from the putrid watry element,

      The damp waste forest, motionless and rank,

      That smothers earth and all the breathless winds.

      Or the vile carnage of th' inhuman field;

      Whatever baneful breathes the rotten south;

      25 Whatever ills th' extremes or sudden change

      Of cold and hot, or moist and dry produce;

      They fly thy pure effulgence: they, and all

      The secret poisons of avenging heaven,

      And all the pale tribes halting in the train

      30 Of vice and heedless pleasure: or if aught

      The comet's glare amid the burning sky,

      Mournful eclipse, or planets ill-combin'd,

      Portend disastrous to the vital world;

      Thy salutary power averts their rage,

      35 Averts the general bane: and but for thee

      Nature would sicken, nature soon would die.

      Without thy chearful active energy

      No rapture swells the breast, no poet sings,

      No more the maids of Helicon delight.

      40 Come then with me, O Goddess heavenly-gay!

      Begin the song; and let it sweetly flow,

      And let it wisely teach thy wholesom laws:

      "How best the fickle fabric to support

      "Of mortal man; in healthful body how

      45 A healthful mind the longest to maintain.

      'Tis hard, in such a strife of rules, to chuse

      The best, and those of most extensive use;

      Harder in clear and animated song

      Dry philosophic precepts to convey.

      50 Yet with thy aid the secret wilds I trace

      Of nature, and with daring steps proceed

      Thro' paths the muses never trod before.

      Nor should I wander doubtful of my way.

      Had I the lights of that sagacious mind

      55 Which taught to check the pestilential fire,

      And quel the dreaded Python of the Nile.

      O Thou belov'd by all the graceful arts,

      Thou long the fav'rite of the healing powers,

      Indulge, O

      Mead

      ! a well-design'd essay,

      60 Howe'er imperfect: and permit that I

      My little knowledge with my country share,

      Till you the rich Asclepian stores unlock,

      And with new graces dignify the theme.

      YE who amid this feverish world would wear

      65 A body free of pain, of cares a mind;

      Fly the rank city, shun its turbid air;

      Breathe not the chaos of eternal smoke

      And volatile corruption, from the dead,

      The dying, sickning, and the living world

      70 Exhal'd, to fully heaven's transparent dome

      With dim mortality. It is not air

      That from a thousand lungs reeks back to thine,

      Sated with exhalations rank and fell,

      The spoil of dunghills, and the putrid thaw

      75 Of nature; when from shape and texture she

      Relapses into fighting elements:

      It is not air, but floats a nauseous mass

      Of all obscene, corrupt, offensive things.

      Much moisture hurts; but here a sordid bath,

      80 With oily rancor fraught, relaxes more

      The solid frame than simple moisture can.

      Besides, immur'd in many a sullen bay

      That never felt the freshness of the breeze,

      This slumbring deep remains, and ranker grows

      85 With sickly rest: and (tho' the lungs abhor

      To drink the dun fuliginous abyss)

      Did not the acid vigour of the mine,

      Roll'd from so many thundring chimneys, tame

      The putrid salts that overswarm the sky;

      90 This caustick venom would perhaps corrode

      Those tender cells that draw the vital air,

      In vain with all their unctuous rills bedew'd;

      Or by the

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