Xliv. Bad Company To Be Shun'D Poem by Ellis Walker

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.