HEALTH, AN

ALLEGORY:

I

In a LETTER to a LAD Y.

MADAM,

Received your obliging favour; and wifh the

goddess, whom you mention with rapture, may be your conftant friend and companion. Methinks I am not at all furprised, that Pagans and Poets have deified Health.

I think too they have judged mighty well in reprefenting this imaginary deity as a female, to express thereby the fuperior charms of this divinity. Had I a talent for fable, I would sketch out for you an allegory upon this fubject. I should probably begin my story after the following manner, or something like it.

Health is reported to be the daughter of Temperance, and born in the golden age. Some are of opinion that fhe was defcended, on the male fide, from Exercise. But, by the best lights I could ever obtain in a matter of fuch antiquity and obfcurity, I am inclined to think that this account of her genealogy is fpurious. For Temperance was not fo properly her mother, as nurse or guardian, one who had the tuition of her infancy, and was afterwards advanced to a most important poft, as fhall hereafter be mentioned. Whatever

Whatever darkness, however, may attend her parental descent, yet all the annals agree in the following; that her birth was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony; for the Graces vifited her in perfon, and each would have adopted her for their own. This beautiful young virgin, though highly accomplished, was never fond of public appearances; which you must own, Madam, would be strange felf-denial in the pretty goddeffes of our days. Her principal delight was in the fields and woods, where Flora dreft her with the rose and the lily; and Diana frequently made her a companion in her sports. A nymph, thus poffeffed of more than human accomplishments, was justly entitled to a throne; nor was it long before fhe was invested with the fceptre by the concurring voices and acclamations of the people. Her reign was long and profperous, and her fubjects were happy. Nor, indeed, could lefs be expected from a queen, that founded her government upon the unerring laws of nature, which were as obligatory upon herself as upon her people; nor could the royal authority itself difpenfe, at any time whatever, with a breach of those primary fta:

tutes.

Her first minister was Virtue, who had an unbounded afcendence over her miftrefs. Befides this premier favourite, there was another, who

was almost a conftant afsociate of the queen. The name of this pretty fylvan was Chearful-nefs. She was generally apparelled in green, of a mild and compofed afpect, liable to have her features fometimes brightened by a smile. Many other virgins joined the train of this princess, and were adjudged to be of British extraction. There was Innocence, dreft in white, with a curious blush of crimson on her cheeks; fhe was handed along by Prudence, who wore a good deal of folicitude in her countenance, and seemed to step with great caution. She was, indeed, an armed fatellite; and had more of feverity than sweetness in her brow. But there was a most beautiful form, that justly challenged a particular description; a lady, who fo closely adhered to the white-robed fair, that it is faid, they were never seen apart. This virgin's name was Peace. She had a noft lovely ferenity in her visage, and a softness not to be delineated by a human pen. The affiftance of the imagination must here be called in, and the portrait wear an angel's face. Though the was highly admired by the gazing crowd, yet fhe feemed to borrow none of her happiness from the applaufes and adoration of the multitude. It is further given out, that, fond as this lady was of the court of Health, fhe rarely makes her appearance in the courts and palaces of other monarchs;

and

and the reafon affigned is her infeparable attachment to the female above-mentioned, who was arrayed in a garment of spotless white.

In procefs of time, there arose a powerful ene, my to the queen-Luxury, an abfolute monarch, who proclaimed war against Health. The armies. of the former were principally Afiatics, and more numerous than those of Xerxes, which drank up whole rivers as they matched, or than those of the Macedonian madman, who conquered all but himfelf. Yet, notwithstanding the number of the tyrant's forces, Health had never been fubdued, if her fubjects had not listened to overtures of peace from the enemy; which, as you fhall hear by and by, paved the way for the diffolution of the queen's happy government.

Excess led the armies of Luxury into the field, and commanded the van; Sickness and Pain were pofted in the centre; Povery and Pride had the command of the wings; and Repentance and Death brought up the rear.

Health headed her own troops, and was fupported by her two illustrious amazons, Refolution and Prudence. The latter drew up the forces with fuch matchless skill, that their corps were impenetrable by the enemy. Their helmets and coats of mail were tempered with fo much art, that they were proof to the enemy's fhot. Nor was

the queen's army to be surprised at any time by a fudden invafion. For Prudence had erected up and down feveral watch towers, whence the motions of the adverfe party were easily defcried.

The difpute was long and doubtful; till at last, the enemy finding no fuccefs likely to ensue from open measures of hoftility, had recourse to stratagem. For, fending Pleasure as an ambaffadrefs, to mediate between the two contending powers, this artful fyren fo infinuated herself into the favour of the queen's fubjects, and fowed fuch discontent in their breast, that, being gradually won upon by her blandifhments and corruptions, they at first began to murmur against the severity of the queen's discipline, and, by degrees relaxing of their allegiance, they at laft revolted openly to the enemy.

Health being thus overpowered by her adverfary, or rather deserted bafely through the treachery of her own fubjects, withdrew from earth to heaven, and was fpeedily enrolled among the divinities; whence fhe ftill continues to impart her benefits to those distinguished few, who wisely regulate their lives by her golden precepts, and hold no correspondence with Luxury, or her partifans.

And