The times., 1897-06-20
THE JOYS OF LIFE.
AN EPIsTLE TO FABRIcrus Ruff

AN THISTLE TO FABRICIUS RUFUS.
What diet lends the strength 70 Life and
| frees
The flower of health from each naalign
/ disease,
The good ofelius, pupil from of old
And follower or Hlppoerates, has told.
| Rating base gluttony with anxious air,
| He thus laid down rne Ia ws OF frugal fare:
Seatness comes first Be thy spare table
bright
With SHINING dishes and with napkins
white,
Be thy Chianti unadulterate
10 cneer the heart and raise the spirits
weight.
Se sure tnat you put water TO your wine
Picked De tiny grain and pure Ihy norne-
made bread,
Thy meats be delicate and dairy fed.
Tender, nor mighty spiced tiny food. nor
tease
Thy taste with sauces from Aegean seas.
resh De thine eggs-hard- boiled or near
ly raw,
Or deftly poached or simply served an
There's wit in poaehing eggs the pro-
verb says,
And you may do them In hundred ways
Nor shun the bowl OF foaming milk that
feeds
The infant, and may serve the seniors
needs,
/ Next on the board be heavens gift, honey,
placed,
And sparmg of HybIaean nectar taste:
Pulses and salads on thy guests bestow-
Even IN suburban gardens salads crow.
Add chosen fruigs-whate'e the times az
ford
Let rose-red apples crown the rustic board;
Last comes the beverage of the ORIENT
shore,
Taste the dark fluid with a dainty lip,
Digestion waits ON pleasure as you sip
".
Such are my precepts for diet sage
That leads thee safely TO a green old age
But wise Ofelius still would sage4y say,
The path OF greed hes quite the other
way
That cruel, shameless siren only cares
To trap men 5 feet and spread her shining
snareS.
These are her arts-to bid the table shine,
With varied ornament and purple fine;
Embroidered napkins impudently glow;
The cups are added in a cleaning row;
Goblets and beakers, bronze and silver
plate,
And fragrant flowers the table decorate.
With these and seeming hospi1abie word,
She draws her guests incautious to the
board,
On couches bids the langutd limbs reeIIne.
And brings forth beakers of her choicest
wine,
What Chan vineyards or Falernian yield,
And juices of the Amyciaean field
With such hqueurS as anxious art diStHs
From various juices dainty cups she fills;
Rivals in greed devosr the juicy Gates,
And guest with guest N drinking efnulates.
III oil and spice boar Lucanian swinls,
Geese lend their hvers. hares their tender
limbs.
Midst ortolans and doves as white as Snow,
Flesh mixed with fish and clans with
oysters show.
The lightly plate huge na1rena fills,
Swimming attended by shoa1 OF squfils.
The gaping guests adore. and, feeding fine.
Feast 60 disgust and soak themselves in
wine.
Then, blown with wine and food, and
angry, all
Arise and fight Ike furies in the hail.
Or fisticuffs they take their eager fill;
At last, with wine and meat o 'eroome, are
still
Greed laughs triumphant in her cruel giee
And browns her guests like sailors In the
sea,
Fell indigestion now her work begins,
The liver finds the sinners in their sins.
Languid, perspiring, tortured, tumid. they,
With limbs that toster, take their devious
way,
With tongues that starnmcr and with faces
pale,
But greed would yet more potently pre-
vail;
The broken, battered body Is her own
What IL the soul herself We're overtbrown,
And bound to earth In greed's unholy
That we inherit OF divine air?
Then. IL she might. her flood she fain
would roll,
Fen Ger the embers OF the immortal soul
LEO XIII