The art of preserving health: A poem

by John Armstrong

And oft a sudden storm at once o’erpowers 435

The Life, or gives your Reason to the winds.

Such fates attend the rash alarm of Fear,

And sudden Grief, and Rage, and sudden Joy.

There are, mean time, to whom the boist’rous fit

Is Health, and only fills the sails of life. 440

For where the Mind a torpid winter leads,

Wrapt in a Body corpulent and cold,

And each clogg’d function lazily moves on;

A generous sally spurns th’ incumbent load,