(II)

120

Or pours profufe on Earth; one Nature feeds
The vital Flame, and swells the genial Seeds.
Not Man alone, but all that roam the Wood,
Or wing the Sky, or roll along the Flood,
Each loves Itself, but not itself alone,
Each Sex defires alike, till two are one :
Nor ends the Pleasure with the fierce Embrace ;
All love themselves, a third time, in their Race.
The Beast, the Bird, their common Charge attend, 125
The Mothers nurse it, and the Sires defend;

The young dismiss'd to wander Earth or Air,
There stops the Instinct, and there ends the Care,
The Link diffolves, each feeks a fresh Embrace,
Another Love succeeds, another Race.
A longer Care Man's helpless Kind demands ;
That longer Care contracts more lasting Bands:
Reflection, Reason, still the Ties improve,
At once extend the Int'rest, and the Love:
With Choice we fix, with Sympathy we burn,
Each Virtue in each Passion takes its Turn;
And still new Needs, new Helps, new Habits rife,
That graft Benevolence on Charities,

130

135

From

A

From private Sparkles raise the gen'ral Flame, 140

And bid Self-Love and Social be the fame.

Thus as one Brood, and as another rose,

These nat'ral Love maintain'd, habitual those;
The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect Man,

Saw helpless Him from whom their Life began: 145
Mem'ry and Forecast juft Returns engage,

That pointed back to Youth, this on to Age; While Pleasure, Gratitude and Hope, combin'd, Still spread the Int'reft, and preserv'd the Kind. Nor think in Nature's State they blindly trod; 150 The State of NATURE was the Reign of GOD: Self-Love and Social at her Birth began, UNION, the Bond of all Things, and of Man. Pride then was not; nor Arts, that Pride to aid; Man walk'd with Beast, joint Tenant of the Shade; 155 The fame his Table, and the same his Bed, No Murder cloath'd him, and no Murder fed. In the fame Temple, the refounding Wood, All Vocal Beings hymn'd their equal God: The Shrine with Gore unstain'd, with Gold undrest, 169 Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless Prieft :

Heav'ns

(13)

Heav'ns Attribute was Universal Care,
And Man's Prerogative to rule, but spare.
Ah how unlike the Man of Times to come!
Of half that live, the Butcher, and the Tomb; 165
Who, Foe to Nature, hears the gen'ral Groan,
Murders their Species, and betrays his own.
But just Disease to Luxury fucceeds,
And ev'ry Death its own Avenger breeds;
The Fury-Paffions from that Blood began,
And turn'd on Man a fiercer Savage, Man.
See him from Nature rising flow to Art!
To copy Instinct, then, was Reason's Part;
Thus then to Man the Voice of Nature spake -
" Go! from the Creatures thy Instructions take; 175
"Learn from the Birds what Food the Thickets yeild;
" Learn from the Beasts the Physick of the Field:
"Thy Arts of Building from the Bee receive;

" Learn of the Mole to plow, the Worm to weave;
"Learn of the little * Nautilus to fail,

" Spread the thin Oar, and catch the driving Gale.

D

170

180

" Here too all Forms of social Union find,
" And hence let Reason, late, instruct Mankind :
" Here Subterranean Works and Cities fee,
" There Towns Aerial on the waving Tree.
" Learn each small People's Genius, Policies;
"The Arts Republic, and the Realm of Bees;
" How those in common all their Stores bestow,

" And Anarchy without Confufion know,

" And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign,

185

190

" Their Sep'rate Cells and Properties maintain.

" Mark what unvary'd Laws preserve their State,

" Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate.

" In vain thy Reason finer Webs shall draw,

" Entangle Justice in her Net of Law,

195

" And Right too rigid harden into Wrong,

" Still for the Strong too weak, the Weak too strong.

" Yet Go! and thus d'er all the Creatures Sway,

" Thus let the Wifer make the rest obey,

" Who for those Arts they learn'd of Brutes before, 200

" As Kings shall crown them, or as Gods adore."

Great Nature spoke; observant Men obey'd ;

Cities were built, Societies were made :

Here

4

(15)

Here rofe one little State; Another near
Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' Love or Fear. 205
Did here the Trees with ruddier Burdens bend,

And there the Streams in purer Rills descend ?
What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow,
And he return'd a Friend, who came a Foe.
Thus States were form'd; the Name of King unknown,210
'Till common Int'rest plac'd the Sway in One.
Then VIRTUE ONLY (or in Arts, or Arms,
Diffusing Blessings, or averting Harms)
The Same which in a Sire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

:

215

"Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, Prieft, and Parent of his growing State : On him, their second Providence, they hung, Their Law, his Eye; their Oracle, his Tongue. He, from the wondring Furrow call'd their Food, 220 Taught to command the Fire, controul the Flood, Draw forth the Monsters of th' Abyss profound, Or fetch th' Aerial Eagle to the Ground. Till drooping, sick'ning, dying, they began Whom they rever'd as God, to mourn as Man.