Moderation

When pious people label vice
    I reckon mainly pleasure;
I dream that women, wine and dice
    Are good in modest measure;
Though sanctity and truth receive
    My hearty approbation,
Of all the virtues, I believe
    The best is Moderation.

Be moderate in love and hate,
    Soft pedal on emotion;
And never let your passion get
    The better of your caution.
Should Right or Leftist seek to goad
    You from the course that's level,
Stick to the middle of the road
    And send them to the devil.

Though rich the feast be moderate
    In eating and in drinking;
An appetite insatiate
    Is evil to my thinking.
Though ladies languidly await
    Your kisses, on your way shun
Their wiles, but - well, be moderate
    Even in moderation.

Avoid extremes: be moderate
    In saving and in spending;
An equable and easy gait
    Will win an easy sending. . . .
So here's to him of open mind,
    Of sense and toleration,
That hope of headlong human-kind,
    The Man of Moderation.