When warm’d by health, as serpents in the spring,

Aside their slough of indolence they fling.

Yet, ere they go, a greater evil comes -

See! crowded beds in those contiguous rooms;

Beds but ill parted, by a paltry screen

Of paper’d lath, or curtain dropt between;

Daughters and sons to yon compartments creep,

And parents here beside their children sleep:

Ye who have power, these thoughtless people part,

Nor let the ear be first to taint the heart.