CANTO THIRD.

Oh Luxury! the eldest born of wealth, Thou foe to virtue, and thou bane of health; Insidious nursling in the lap of ease, Whose breath is pestilence, whose smile disease; May suffering man yet see thee as thou art, A greedy vampyre, feasting on his heart!⁠(18) Of all the ills that ante-date the doom Of erring mortals, and erect the tomb So near the cradle, shortening to a span The fleeting life of transitory man, The worst is luxury:—Infrequent flies The lightning’s fatal bolt; the lowering skies Are seldom darkened by the whirlwind’s wrath, Or loud tornado’s devastating path. Beneath the ocean wave though some expire, And others by the fierce volcano’s fire; Though savage war can boast his thousands slain, On tented field, or bosom of the main; Yet few the victims of these fates malign, Compared, intemperate luxury! with thine.⁠(19) Wherever wealth and false refinement reign, The pampered appetites compose their train; Remotest climes supply the varied feast, But wisdom never comes a welcome guest; The gormand, folly, bids the poison pass, And drains destruction from the circling glass.⁠(20) The harmless flock, to cruel slaughter led, Crowns high the board; for this the herd has bled,⁠(21) For this, the gay musicians of the grove, Suspend forever all their songs of love!⁠(22) Earth, air, and ocean, each its part supplies Of sentient life, to swell the sacrifice; As though some fiend had sketched the darkest plan Of bloody banquet for the monster—man!⁠(23) Though teeming earth bestows on honest toil, In every climate and in every soil, Their proper fruits, by nature’s law designed, The safe and luscious diet of mankind,⁠(24) Yet, see the race from flowery Eden stray, To roam the mightiest of the beasts of prey! See sensual man still smiling with delight, While bleeding life is quivering in his sight! But nature, sure to vindicate her cause, Avenges each transgression of her laws; Beware, rash man!—for every nice offence Shall meet, in time, a dreadful recompence; Nor flight can save—nor necromantic art, Nor dext’rous stratagems elude the smart:— For, lo, in fearful shapes, a haggard band Of fell diseases, wait at her command. ’Tis thus derangement, pain, and swift decay, Obtain in man their desolating sway, Corrupt his blood, infect his vital breath, And urge him headlong to the shades of death. No more his cheeks with flushing crimson glow; No more he feels the sanguine current flow; But quenched and dim his sightless eyeballs roll, Nor meet one star that gilds the glowing pole!⁠(25) Amid this general wreck of health and ease, Where every folly generates disease, The teeth, in spite of nature’s guardian care, In all disorders of the system share, Besides those ills peculiarly their own, To other portions of the frame unknown. If sloth or negligence the task forbear Of making cleanliness a daily care; If fresh ablution, with the morning sun, Be quite forborne or negligently done; In dark disguise insidious tartar comes Incrusts the teeth and irritates the gums, Till vile deformity usurps the seat Where smiles should play and winning graces meet, And foul disease pollutes the fair domain, Where health and purity should ever reign.⁠(26) Behold Urilla, nature’s favored child;— Bright on her birth indulgent fortune smiled;— Her honored grandsire, when the field was won, By warring freeman, led by Washington, Nobly sustained, on many a glorious day, The fiercest fervors of the battle-fray; Survived the strife, and saw at length unfurled Our union-banner floating round the world; Then found a grave, as every patriot can, Inscribed “Defender of the rights of man.” Her sire, whose freighted ships from every shore Returned with wealth in unexhausted store, Was doubly rich:—his gold was less refined Than the bright treasures of his noble mind. And she herself is fair in form and face;— Her glance is modesty, her motion grace, Her smile, a moonbeam on the garden bower, Her blush, a rainbow on the summer shower, And she is gentler than the fearful fawn That drinks the glittering dew-drops of the lawn. When first I saw her eyes’ celestial blue, Her cheeks’ vermilion, and the carmine hue, That melted on her lips:—her auburn hair That floated playful on the yielding air; And then that neck within those graceful curls, Molten from Cleopatra’s liquid pearls, I whispered to my heart:—we’ll fondly seek The means, the hour, to hear the angel speak; For sure such language from those lips must flow, As none but pure and seraph natures know. ’Twas said—’twas done—the fit occasion came, As if to quench betimes the kindling flame Of love and admiration:—for she spoke, And lo, the heavenly spell forever broke; The fancied angel vanished into air, And left unfortunate Urilla there: For when her parted lips disclosed to view, Those ruined arches, veiled in ebon hue, Where love had thought to feast the ravished sight On orient gems reflecting snowy light, Hope, disappointed, silently retired, Disgust triumphant came, and love expired! And yet, Urilla’s single fault was small: If by so harsh a name ’tis just to call Her slight neglect:—but ’tis with beauty’s chain, As’ tis with nature’s:—sunder it in twain At any link, and you dissolve the whole, As death disparts the body from the soul.⁠(27) Let every fair one shun Urilla’s fate, And wake too action, ere it be to late;— Let each successive day unfailing bring The brush, the dentifrice, and, from the spring,⁠(28) The cleansing flood:—the labor will be small, And blooming health will soon reward it all.⁠(29) Or, if her past neglect preclude relief, By gentle means like these; assuage her grief; The dental art can remedy the ill, Restore her hopes, and make her lovely still.⁠(30) Yet, other evils may her care engage, The offspring of an epicurean age.⁠(31) Destructive caries comes with secret stealth T’ avenge the violated laws of health: Dilapidates the teeth by slow decay, And bears them all successively away.⁠(32) So, silent Time, with unresisted power, Labors at midnight in the lonely tower; Corrodes the granite in the ivied wall, And smiles to hear the crumbling atoms fall;— Till all the mighty structure disappears, A dream forgot, a tale of other years.⁠(33) When caries, thus, the solid tooth destroys, That sullen enemy to mortal joys, The tooth-ache, supervenes:—detested name, Most justly damned to everlasting fame!⁠(34) They say who most have felt, and best should know The power of this most execrable wo, That when Pandora’s box of mortal pains, Was first unlocked among the wondering swains, To every vice its kindred grief was sent, And every crime received its punishment, Except intemperance:—no single ill Could heaven’s irrevocable law fulfil, The fixed resolve, th’ omnipotent decree, That each offence should meet its penalty; Then all these mortal woes in one were joined, And tooth-ache came, the terror of mankind!⁠(35) Thou haggard fiend! of hellish imps the worst, To mercy deaf, by sorrowing man accurst;⁠(36) Though cheerless days made desolate by thee, And long, long nights of sleepless agony, Have marked thy fearful reign in days of yore, Thy power is crushed,—thy scorpion-sting no more Affrights the helpless, for the dental art Commands thy gloomy terrors to depart, Then wipes from beauty’s cheek the tears that burn, And bids her roses and her smiles return.