received; but how great was his amazement when supper was served up,
to see nothing but milk, honey, and a few roots, dressed in the
plainest, but neatest manner, to which hunger, cheerfulness, and
good sense, were the only sauces. Esculapius seemed to eat with
pleasure, while Cremes scarcely tasted of them. On which a repast
was ordered more suitable to the taste of our guest. Immediately
there succeeded a banquet composed of the most artful dishes that
luxury could invent, with great plenty and variety of the richest
and most intoxicating wines. These too were accompanied by damsels
of the most bewitching beauty. Cremes now gave a loose to his
appetites, and every thing he tasted raised ecstasies beyond what he
had ever known. During the repast, the damsels sung and danced to
entertain them; their charms enchanted the enraptured guest, already
flushed with what he had drank; his senses were lost in ecstatic
confusion. Every thing around him seemed Elysium, and he was on the
point of indulging the most boundless freedoms, when on a sudden
their beauty, which was but a vizard, fell off, and discovered forms
the most hideous and forbidding imaginable. Lust, revenge, folly,
murder, meagre poverty, and despair, now appeared in the most odious
shapes, and the place instantly became a most dire scene of misery
and confusion. How often did Cremes wish himself far distant from
such a diabolical company, and now dreaded the fatal consequence
which threatened him. His blood ran chill at his heart, and joy and
rapture were perverted to amazement and horror!--When Esculapius
perceived it had made a sufficient impression on his guest, he thus
addressed him: "Know, Cremes, it is Esculapius who has thus
entertained you, and what you have beheld is a true image of the
deceitfulness and misery inseparable from luxury and intemperance.
Would you be happy, be temperate: temperance is the parent of
health, virtue, wisdom, plenty, and every thing that can make you