CANTO SECOND.
The first dentition asks our earliest care,
For oft, obstructed nature, laboring there,
Demands assistance of experienced art,
And seeks from science her appointed part.(5)
Perhaps ere yet the infant tongue can tell
The seat of anguish that it knows too well,
Some struggling tooth, just bursting into day,
Obtuse and vigorous, urges on its way,
While inflammation, pain, and bitter cries,
And flooding tears, in sad succession rise.(6)
The lancet, then, alone can give relief,
And mitigate the helpless sufferer’s grief;
But no unpractised hand should guide the steel
Whose polished point must carry wo or weal:—
With nicest skill the dentist’s hand can touch,
And neither wound too little nor too much.(7)
Be prompt to act:—’tis dangerous to delay,
Since life awaits the issue of a day:—
Reject the gentler means:—employ the best:—
Let unobstructed nature do the rest.(8)
This rule neglected, many a smiling form,
With beauty bright, and life blood glowing warm,
Its parents’ pride, a floweret in its bloom,
Descends lamented to an early tomb.(9)
Nor less the danger when the first array—
The infant teeth—alternately decay,
Or yield succession to a hardier race
With marked reluctance; for, in either case,
Neglect will bring repentance in its train;
In one, deformity;—the other, pain(10)
Or fell disease;—but timely care may still
Avoid the danger, or repair the ill.(11)
If pain ensue, and neighboring parts inflame,
Extraction is the cure; and ’tis the same
If nature’s law, obstructed in its course,
Should meet resistance from opposing force:(12)
For this resisting force howe’er remote,
Meets in the dental art its antidote;
Pain flies its presence; anguish wipes her tear;
To hope’s fond vision rainbow-hues appear;
Pale, trembling beauty hushes her alarms,
And beaux, admiring, own her added charms.
Now mark the contrast in some hideous face,
Robbed by neglect, of symmetry and grace:—
Behold those organs, formed on nature’s plan,
To serve important purposes to man;
To form the sounds in which his thoughts are drest,
His wishes uttered, and his love confest;
To fit his solid food of every name,
For healthy action on the general frame;(13)
Behold these organs, wrested by abuse,
From wisest purpose, and from noblest use,
Deranged, displaced, distorted, set awry,
Disgusting objects of deformity!(14)
Such mal-formations hardier man perplex,
But, with more grief, afflict the softer sex:—
For when with grace, deformity is joined,
As one base passion desolates the mind,
So one contrasted fault alone disarms
All conquering beauty of a thousand charms.
Let azure eyes with coral lips unite,
And health’s vermilion blend with snowy white;
Let auburn tresses float upon the gale,
And flowery garlands all their sweets exhale;
If once the lips in parting, should display
The teeth discolored or in disarray,
The spell dissolves, and beauty in despair
Beholds her fond pretensions melt in air.
But learn the remedy:—the dentist’s skill
Subjects disordered nature to his will:—
As great commanders hear without alarms,
The shouts of battle and the shock of arms,
And, when their troops, in broken ranks, incline
To wild confusion, bring them into line;
So he—the master of the dental art,
Can order, grace, and symmetry impart,
Where anarchy had else sustained alone
The undisputed title to his throne.
Such benefits this useful science lends
To earliest youth;—and yet its aid extends
To following years, assuaging mortal pain,
And oft restoring beauty’s flowery reign.
The human frame, offspring of heaven’s high will,
Displays throughout inimitable skill;
No part defective: none that perfect love
Could prompt unbounded wisdom to improve.
The eye, the ear, how wondrously designed
To serve as useful allies to the mind.
The heaving lungs, that drink th’ aerial flood,
Imparting vigor to the vital blood;—
The heart, that like a virtuous monarch, reigns,
And spreads delight through all its wide domains:(15)
How wondrous these!—yet see the hand divine
By equal skill displayed in every line,
In every feature of the perfect whole,
That acts in concert with the moving soul.
To this great law, that governs every part,
And rules “as perfect in a hair as heart,”
The teeth conform; and hence it stands confest,
Their substance, form, and structure, are the best
That wisdom could devise for such a use,
And hence, defective, only from abuse.(16)
Not polished pearl from Ceylon’s coral caves,
Or California’s or Cumana’s waves;
From Indian hills, Golconda’s lucid gem
That shines a star in Brama’s diadem;
Nor gold of Ophir, wrought by Aaron’s skill,
To form the idol calf, and worshipped still,
Could act the part in nature’s general plan,
Assigned these organs in the frame of man.(17)
END OF CANTO SECOND.