Reason, however able, cool at beft,

Cares not for fervice, or but ferves when preft,

Stays 'till we call, and then not often near;
But honeft Inftinct comes a volunteer,

85

Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit ;

While ftill too wide or fhort is human Wit;

90

Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain,

Which heavier Reafon labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reafon never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And Reafon rife o'er Inftinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.

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Who taught the nations of the field and wood To fhun their poison, and to chufe their food? 100 Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand? Who made the fpider parallels defign,

Sure as De-moivre, without rule or line?

Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore 105 Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?

NOTES.

those who were ftruck by lightning as facred perfons,

and the particular favourites of Heaven. P.

Who calls the council, ftates the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds Its proper blifs, and fets its proper bounds: But as he fram'd a Whole, the Whole to blefs, On mutual Wants built mutual Happiness : So from the firft, eternal ORDER ran, And creature link'd to creature, man to man, Whate'er of life all-quick'ning æther keeps, 115 Or breathes thro' air, or fhoots beneath the deeps, Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds. 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 fex defires alike, 'till two are one. Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace; They love themselves, a third time, in their race. Thus beaft and bird their common charge attend, The mothers nurse it, and the fires defend; The young dismiss'd to wander earth or air, There ftops the Inftinct, and there ends the care; The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace, Another love fucceeds, another race.

120

126

130

A longer care Man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lafting bands;

Reflection, Reason, ftill the ties improve,

At once extend the int'reft, and the love;

With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn: 135
Each Virtue in each Paffion takes its turn;

And still new needs, new helps, new habits rife,
That graft benevolence on charities.

Still as one brood, and as another rofe,

These natʼral love maintain'd, habitual those: 140
The laft, fcarce ripen'd into perfect Man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Mem'ry and fore-cast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd, 145
Still spread the int'reft, and preferv'd the kind.
IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they
blindly trod;

The state of Nature was the reign of God:
Self-love and Social at her birth began,

150

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;

The fame his table, and the fame 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:

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The fhrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest : Heav'n's attribute was Universal Care,

And Man's prerogative to rule, but fpare.

Ah! how unlike the man of times to come!
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;
Who, foe to Nature, hears the gen'ral groan,
Murders their fpecies, and betrays his own.
But juft difeafe to luxury fucceeds,
And ev'ry death it's own avenger breeds;
The Fury-paffions from that blood began,
And turn'd on Man a fiercer savage, Man.
See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy Inftinct then was Reafon's part;

NOTES.

in ufe was common to man and beafts. Moral philofo. phers took this in the popular fenfe, and fo invented thofe fables which give fpeech to the whole brute creation. The Naturalifts understood the tradition to fignify, that, in the firft

160

165

170

ages, Men ufed inarticulate founds like beasts to express their wants and fenfations; and that it was by flow degrees they came to the ufe of fpeech. This opinion was afterwards held by Lu cretius, Diodorus Sic. and Gregory of Nyf.

Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake"Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beafts the physic of the field;

Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "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. "Here too all forms of focial union find,

" And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind:

NOTES.

of healing, by their own practice.

VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian. Halieut. lib. i. defcribes this fish in the following manner:

VER. 173. Learn from the birds, &c.] It is a common practice amongst Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coast, and in want of refreshments, to observe what fruits have been touched by the Birds and to venture on these without" back of their shells, further hefitation. "which exactly resemble "the hulk of a fhip; they

66

They fwim on the fur"face of the fea, on the

VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, &c] See Pliny's" Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where feveral inftances are given of Animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of" them; and pointing out to fome operations in the art

raife two feet like mafts, "and extend a membrane between, which ferves as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are "ufually feen in the Medi"terranean." P.