 | The Third Part of the Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley
Being his Six Book of Plants |  |
Upon the Same.
EAT me with Bread and Oil, you'll ne'r repine,
Or say, in Summer you want meat to dine.
The Worlds first golden Age such Viands blest,
I was the chief ingredient at a Feast:
Large bodies for the Demigods my juice,
And blood proportionable, did produce.
Then neither fraud nor force, nor lust was known,
Such ills their rise from too much heat must own.
Let their vile Name religiously be curst,
Who to base Glutt'ny gave dominion first.
For thence sprang Vice, whose Train Distempers were,
And Death did in new, ghastly shapes appear.
Shun cruel Tables, that with blood are dy'd,
And Banquets by destructive Death suppli'd.
Sick, if not well, thou'lt Herbs desire, and we
Shall prove, it not thy Meat, thy Remedy.
Or say, in Summer you want meat to dine.
The Worlds first golden Age such Viands blest,
I was the chief ingredient at a Feast:
Large bodies for the Demigods my juice,
And blood proportionable, did produce.
Then neither fraud nor force, nor lust was known,
Such ills their rise from too much heat must own.
Let their vile Name religiously be curst,
Who to base Glutt'ny gave dominion first.
For thence sprang Vice, whose Train Distempers were,
And Death did in new, ghastly shapes appear.
Shun cruel Tables, that with blood are dy'd,
And Banquets by destructive Death suppli'd.
Sick, if not well, thou'lt Herbs desire, and we
Shall prove, it not thy Meat, thy Remedy.
| The Third Part of the Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley
Being his Six Book of Plants | |