In quest of sites, avoid the mournful plain
Where osiers thrive, and trees that love the lake;
Where many lazy muddy rivers flow: 150
Nor for the wealth that all the Indies roll
Fix near the marshy margin of the main.
For from the humid soil, and watry reign,
Eternal vapours rise; the spungy air
For ever weeps; or, turgid with the weight 155
Of waters, pours a sounding deluge down.
Skies such as these let every mortal shun