On Conversation (1782) [ Concepts ]
… But when unpack'd your disappointment groans To find it stuff'd with brickbats, earth, and stones. Some men employ their health, an ugly trick, In making known how oft they have been sick, And give us, in recitals of disease, A doctor's … Of wise reflection and well-timed discourse. We next inquire, but softly and by stealth, Like conservators of the public health, Of epidemic throats, if such there are, And coughs, and rheums, and phthisic, and catarrh. That theme exhausted, … power; And lips unstained by folly or by strife, Whose wisdom, drawn from the deep well of life, Tastes of its healthful origin, and flows A Jordan for the ablution of our woes. O days of heaven, and nights of equal praise, Serene …
Conversation | Crime
Anthology