Delaware gazette and state journal., 1897-06-17
SHUN GREED;
BE Content with sparse aud Frugal Far

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BE Content with sparse aud Frugal Fare.
AN EPIsTLE TO FABRiclus RUFUS.
What diet lends the strength to life and frees
The flower of health from each malign
disease
The good ofellus. pupil from Of old
And follower of Hippocrates, has told.
Rating base gluttony with nxiuus air.
He thus laid down the laws OF frugal fare:
Neatness comes first. Be thy spare table
bright .HI3s.
With shining dishes and with napkins white.
be thy Chianti unadulterate.
10 cheer the heart and raise the spirits
weight.
Yet trust not much the rosy god; in fine.
BE sure that you put water to your wine.
Picked be thy grain and pure thy home
made bread.
Thy meats be delicate and dairy fed.
Tender nor highly spiced thy food; nor tease
Thy taste with sauces from .Egean seas.
Fresh be thine eggs-hard boiled or nearly
raw, 1.,f
Or deftly poached or simply served au plat.
There's wit in poaching eggs, the pfoverb
says,
And you may do them in hundred ways
III.
Nor shun the bowl of foaming milk that
feeds 4u.
The infant and may serve the seniors needs.
Next on the board be Heavens gift, honey.
placed,
And spafing of Hyblaan nectar taste.
Pulses and salads on thy guests bestow-
Even in suburban gardens salads grow.
Add chosen fruits - whate'er the times
afford;
Let rose.red apples crown the rustic board.
Last comes the beverage of the Orient shore--
Mocha, far off, the fragrant berries bore.
Taste the dark fluid with dainty lip;
Digestion waits on pleasure as you sip.
Such are my precepts for diet sage
That leads thee safely to green old age.
But wise Ofellus still would sageiy say.
The path of greed lies quite the other way.
That cruel, shameless siren only cares
To trap mems 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 ordered in cleaning row;
Goblets and beakers, bronze, and silver
plate.
And fragrant flowers the table decorate.
With these and seeming hospitable word
She draws her guests incautious to the
board;
Oh CouCncs plus tnt idIRltlu llfNDS reCllE0
And brings forth beakers of her choicest
wine.
What Chan vineyards or Falernian YIELD
And juices of the Amycltnan field,
With such liqneurs as anxious art distils;
From various juices dainty cups she fills.
Rivals in greed deyour the juicy Gates,
And guest with guest in drinking emulates.
In oil and spice boar Lucanian swlms;
Geese lend their livers, hares their tender
limbs
Midst ortolans and doves as white as snow.
Flesh mixed with fish and clans with oys.
ters show.
The mighty plate huge murena fills,
Swimming. attended BY shoal OF sqllls,
The gaping guests adore and, feeding line,
Feast to disgust and soak themselves in
wine.
Then, blown with wine and food and angry,
all
Arise and fight like furies in the hall.
Of fisticuffs they take their eager fill;
At last. with wine and meat o'ercome, are
still.
Greed laughs triumphant in her cruel glee
And browns her guests like sailors in the sea;
| Fell indigestion now her work begint
| The liver finds the sinners in their sins;
Languld perspiring tortured, tumid, they
| With limbs that totter take their devious
way,
With tongues that stammer and with faces
pale.
But greed would yet more potently prevail;
| The broken, battered body is her owi,--
What if the soul herself were overthrown,
And bound to earth in greed's unholy snare.
| That we inherit of divner air. s. .
Then, il it might, the flood of greed would
roll
Zen Ger the embers of the immortal soul