If with civility you can, decline
All public feasts, and learn at home to dine
With sober food, at your own charge content;
But if oblig'd, in point of compliment,
To eat abroad, be it your care to shun
The vulgar dregs of conversation:
As common vile discourse, and dirty jests,
The nauseous merriment of greasy feasts:
For if your company be lewd, you may
Soon grow as dissolute and lewd as they;
For there's contagion in each word they speak,
Each smile they make, each jest they break;
Their very breath envenoms all the chear,
As if the Harpye-sisters had been there.
Thus hurtful vapours, rising from the ground,
Poison whate'er they meet, leave nothing found.
Thus a blear'd weeping eye is apt to make
The' infected eyes of the beholders ake.
Thus sheep diseas'd, pall'd wine, corrupted fruit,
If mix'd, the healthful, sprightly, found, pollute.