The
very gems that now lie buried in the bosom of the ocean, would then
bespangle its surface, and the dumb tenants of the watery tracts, inured
to their blaze, would learn to leave the caverns of the sea and gaze
upon the sun.
"Mortals, open your hearts to the divinity of pleasure! Why should he be
in love with labour, who has a capacious hoard of choice delights within
his reach? Why should we fly from a present good that we possess, to a
future that we do not comprehend? Is this the praise we owe the
bounteous Gods? Can neglect and indifference to their gifts be
gratitude? This were to serve them like a timorous and trembling slave
beneath the eye of an austere and capricious tyrant; and not with that
generosity, that enthusiasm, that liberal self-confidence, which are
worthy of a father, a patron and a friend.
"Ye that are wise, ye that are favoured of propitious heaven, drink deep
of the cup of pleasure. The sun has now withdrawn his splendid lustre,
and his flaring beams. The period of exercise is past, and the lids of
prying curiosity is [are] closed. Night is the season of feast and the
season of gaiety. In the graver hours of activity and industry, sobriety
may be proper. It may then be fit to listen to the dictates of prudence,
and pay some attention to the prejudices of mankind.
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