Pursued prolixly, even the gentlest toil 210

Is waste of health: Repose by small fatigue

Is earn’d; and (where your habit is not prone

To thaw) by the first moisture of the brows.

The fine and subtle spirits cost too much

To be profus’d, too much the roscid balm. 215

But when the hard varieties of life

You toil to learn; or try the dusty chace,

Or the warm deeds of some important day:

Hot from the field, indulge not yet your limbs