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Unless his other attributes were join'd
To poife the will, and regulate the mind,
Goodness to aim, and wifdom to direct,
What mighty mischiefs must we thence expect?
The maker knows his work; nor judg'd it fit
To truft the rash resolves of human wit:
Which prone to hurt, too blind to help, is still
Alike pernicious, mean it good or ill.

A whim, t' improvements making fond pretence,
Would burft a fyftem in experiments ;
Sparrows and cats indeed no more should fear,
But Saturn tremble in his distant sphere :
Give thee but footing in another world,
Say, Archimedes, where fhould we be hurl'd?
A fprightly wit, with liquor in his head,
Would burn a globe to light him drunk to bed:
Th' Ephefian temple had escap'd the flame,

And heaven's high dome had built the madman's fame.
The fullen might (when malice boil'd within)

Strike out the stars to intimate his fpleen :

Not poppy-heads had spoke a Tarquin croft;
Nature's chief spring had broke, and all been loft.
Nor less destructive would this license prove,
Tho' thy breaft flam'd with univerfal love.
In vain were thy benevolence of foul;
Soon would thy folly difconcert the whole.
No rains, or fnows, fhould difcompose the air;
But flow'rs and fun-shine drain the weary year:

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No

No clouds fhould fully the clear face of day;
No tempefts rife,-to blow a plague away.
Mercy should reign untir'd, unstain'd with blood;
Spare the frail guilty, to eat up the good:-
In their defence, rife, facred Justice, rife!
Awake the thunder fleeping in the skies,
Sink a corrupted city in a minute:

-Wo! to the righteous ten who may be in it.
Pick out the bad, and sweep them all away!
—So leave their babes, to cats and dogs a prey.
Such pow'r without God's wisdom and his will,
Were only an omnipotence of ill,

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Suited to man can we fuch pow'r esteem!
Fiends would be harmless, if compar'd with him.
Say then, fhall all his attributes be given?
His effence follows, and his throne of heav'n;
His very unity. Proud wretch! fhall he
Un-god himself to make a god of thee?

How wide, fuch luft of liberty confounds!
Would lefs content thee, prudent mark the bounds!
"Those which th' almighty Monarch firft defign'd,
"When his great image feal'd the human mind';
"When to the beafts the fruitful earth was giv'n;
"To fifh the ocean, and to birds their heaven ;
"And all to man: whom full creation, stor'd,
"Receiv'd as its proprietor, and lord.

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"Ere earth, whofe fpacious tract unmeasur'd spreads, "Was flic'd by acres and by roods to shreds;

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When

<< When trees and ftreams were made a general good;
"And not as limits, meanly to exclude:

"When all to all belong'd; ere pow'r was told

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By number'd troops, or wealth by counted gold:
"Ere kings, or priests, their tyranny began ;
<< Or man was vaffal'd to his fellow-man."

O halcyon ftate! when man begun to live!
A blefling, worthy of a god to give!
Who on th' unfpotted mind his Maker drew
The heav'nly characters, correct and true.
All useful knowledge, from that fource, supply'd;
No blindness fprung from ignorance, or pride:
All proper bleflings, from that hand, bestow'd;
No mischiefs, or for want, or fulness, flow'd:
The quick'ning paffions gave a pleafing zeft;
While thankful man fubmitted to be bleft.
Simplicity, was wisdom; temperance, health :
Obedience, pow'r; and full contentment, wealth.
So happy once was man! till the vain elf
Shook off his guide, and set up for himself.
Smit with the charms of independency,
He scorns protection, raging to be free.
Now, felf-expos'd, he feels his naked ftate;
Shrinks with the blast, or melts before the heat:
And blindly wanders, as his fancy leads,

To starve on waftes, or feast on pois'nous weeds.
Now to the favage beafts an obvious prey;
Or crafty men, more favage ftill than they :

No

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No lefs imprudent to his breast to take
The friend unfaithful, or th' envenom'd snake;
Equally fatal, whether on the Nile,
Or in the city, weeps the crocodile.

Nor yet lefs blindly deviates learned pride;
In Ætna burn'd, or drown'd amid the tide:
Boafts of fuperior fenfe; then raves to fee
(When contradicted) fools lefs wife than he.
Mates with his great Creator; vainly bold
To make new fyftems, or to mend the old.
Shapes out a Deity; doubts, then denies :
And drunk with science, curfes God and dies.
Not heav'nly wifdom, only, is with-held,
But the free bounty of the self-fown field:

No more, as erft, from Nature's ready feast,
Rifes the fatisfy'd, but temp'rate guest:
Caft wild abroad, no happy mean preferves ;
By choice he furfeits, by conftraint he starves :
Toils life away upon the ftubborn plain,
T'extort from thence the flow reluctant grain ;
The flow reluctant grain, procur'd to-day,
His lefs industrious neighbour steals away:
Hence fifts and clubs the village-peace confound,
Till fword and cannon spread the ruin round;
For time and art but bring from bad to worse:
Unequal lots fucceed unequal force,

Each lot a feveral curfe. Hence rich, and poor:
This pines, and dies neglected at the door;

While

While gouts and fevers wait the loaded mess,
And take full vengeance for the poor's distress.

No more the paffions are the springs of life;
But feeds of vice, and elements of ftrife:
Love, focial love, t' extend to all defign'd,
Back to its fountain flows; to felf, confin'd.
Source of misfortunes; the fond husband's wrong;
The maid dishonour'd, and deferted young!
The mischief spreads; when vengeance for the luft
Unpeoples realms, and calls the ruin juft.

Hence, Troy, thy fate! the blood of thousands fpilt,
And orphans mourning for unconscious guilt.
Thus love destroys, for kinder purpose giv❜n;
And man corrupts the bleffings meant by heav'n;
Self-injur'd, let us cenfure HIM no more:
Ambition makes us flaves, and avʼrice poor.

What arts the wild disorder fhall controul,
And render pcace with virtue to the foul?
Out-reafon intereft, ballance prejudice ;
Give paffion ears, and blinded error eyes?
Arm the weak hand with conqueft, and protect
From guile, the heart too honest to suspect?
For this, mankind, by fad experience taught,
Again their fafety in dependence fought :
Prefs'd to the standard, fued before the throne;
And durft rely on wisdom not their own.
Hence Saturn rul'd in peace th' Aufonian plains,
While Salian fongs to virtue won the swains,
VOL. III.

But

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