My soul, in humble hope unscared, That this thy want may be prepared To meet the Judgment day. -J. Q. ADAMS. 159. WATER. Wine, wine, thy power and praise May sneer at my strain, as the song of a fool. Should ye ever be one of a fainting band, What treasures exist in the cold, deep well; Let Heaven this one rich gift withhold, How soon we find it is better than gold. * --ELIZA COOK. I have ever found from my own knowledge and custom, as well as from the custom and observation of others, that those who drink nothing but water, or make it their principal drink, are but little affected by the climate, and can undergo the greatest fatigue without inconvenience.* -DR. MOSELY. • From The Use and Abuse of Liquors, by W. B. Carpenter. Care should be taken not to drink water from wells in which leaves or other decaying matter have fallen. If necessitated to use such water, it should first be boiled and then filtered. It has been stated that water may hold malaria in solution, and that the poison may thus be introduced into the system.* * From A Manual of Family Medicine and Hygiene or India, by Sir William Moore. 160. WIFE, CHILDREN, AND FRIENDS. When the black-lettered list to the Gods was presented, In vain surly Plato maintained he was cheated, If the stock of our bliss is in stranger hand vested, Though valour still glows in his life's dying embers, The soldier whose deeds live immortal in story, Though spice-breathing gales on his caravan hover, The merchant still thinks of the wood-bines that cover The bower where he sat with wife, children and friends. The day-spring of youth still unclouded by sorrow, Alone on itself for enjoyment depends, But drear is the twilight of age if it borrow No warmth from the smile of wife, children and friends. Let the breath of renown ever freshen and nourish The laurel which o'er the dead favourite bends; O'er me wave the willow, and long may it flourish, Bedewed with the tears of wife, children and friends. Let us drink, for my song, growing graver and graver, To subjects too solemn insensibly tends; Let us drink-pledge me high; Love and Virtue shall flavour The glass which I fill to wife, children and friends. -HON. WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER. |