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ESSAY ON MAN.

Mem'ry and fore-caft 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 preferv'd the kind.

EP. III.

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IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they blindly trod; The ftate of Nature was the reign of God: Self-love and focial at her birth began,

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Union the bond of all things, and of Man.

Pride then was not; nor Arts, that pride to aid;

Man walk'd with beaft, joint tenant of the fhade ;
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,

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All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God;

The shrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blameless priest:
Heav'ns 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 just disease to luxury fucceeds,

And every death its own avenger breeds;
The Fury-paffions from that blood began,
And turn'd on Man a fiercer favage, Man.

See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy Inftinct then was Reafon's part;
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 beasts the phyfic 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, "Here too all forms of focial union find,

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And hence let Reafon, late, inftruct mankind : 180: "Here fubterranean works and cities fee;

"There towns aerial on the waving tree.

"Learn each fmall People's genius, policies,
"The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bécs:
"How thofe in common all their wealth bestow,
"And Anarchy without confufion know;
"And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign,
"Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain.
"Mark what unvary'd laws preferve each state,
"Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate.
"In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw,
Entangle Juftice in her net of Law,

"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;

"Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong.
"Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway,
"Thus let the wifer make the rest obey;
"And for thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford,
"Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd."

V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Men obey'd;
Cities were built, Societies were made:
Here rofe one little ftate; another near
Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the streams in purer rills defcend?
What War could ravifh, Commerce could bestow,
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.
Converfe and Love mankind might strongly draw,
When Love was Liberty, and Ñature Law.

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Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown, 'Till common int'reft plac'd the fway in one. 'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms, Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms) The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd,

A Prince the Father of a People made.

VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate,

King, prieft, and parent of his growing ftate;
On him, their fecond Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood,
Draw forth the moniters of th' abyfs profound,
Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground.

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ESSAY ON MAN.

"Till drooping, fick'ning, dying they began
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as Man:
Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor'd
One great First Father, and that first ador'd.
Or plain tradition, that this All begun,
Convey'd unbroken faith from fire to fon;
The Worker from the work diftinct was known,
And fimple Reason never fought but one:
Ere Wit oblique had broke that fteady light,
Man, like his Maker, faw that all was right;
To Virtue, in the paths of Pleasure trod,
And own'd a Father when he own'd a God.
LOVE all the faith, and all th' allegiance then;
For Nature knew no right divine in Men,
No ill could fear in God; and understood
A fov'reign being but a fov'reign good.
(True faith, true policy, united ran,)
That was but love of God, and this of Man.

EP. III.

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Who firft taught fouls enflaved, and realms undone, Th' enormous faith of many made for one;

That proud exception to all Nature's laws,
T'invert the world, and counterwork its Cause?
Force first made Conqueft, and that Conqueft, Law;
"Till Superftition taught the tyrant awe,
Then fhar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,

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And Gods of Conqu'rors, Slaves of Subjects made:
She'midft the lightning's blaze, and thunder's found,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To Pow'r unfeen, and mightier far than they:
She, from the rending earth and burfting fkies,
Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft, abodes;
Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust,
Whofe attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft;.
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on fpite, and heav'n on pride.

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260.

Then facred feem'd th' etherial vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then first the Flamen tafted living food;
Next his grim idol fmear'd with human blood;
With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

So drives Self-love, thro' juft, and thro' unjust,
To one Man's pow'r, ambition lucre, luft:
The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the caufe
Of what restrains him, Government and Laws.
For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel?
How shall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprize, a ftronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty restrain :
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus by Self-defence,
Ev'n Kings learnt justice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the part it first pursu'd,
And found the private in the public good.

"Twas then, the ftudious head or gen'rous mind,
Follow'r of God or friend of human-kind,
Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore

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The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his fhadow drew:

Taught Pow'r's due ufe to People and to Kings;

Taught nor to flack, nor ftrain its tender ftrings, 290 The lefs, or greater, fet fo juftly true,

That touching one muft ftrike the other too;

Till jarring int'refts of themselves create

Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd State.

Such is the World's great harmony, that fprings

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From Order, Union, full Confent of things:

Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty, made To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade;

More pow'rful each as needful to the reft,

And, in proportion as it bleffes, bleft;

Draw to one point, and to one center bring

Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.

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Ee. III.

ESSAY ON MAN.

24

For Forms of Government let fools conteft;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft:
For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right:
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity:

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All must be falfe that thwart this One great End;
And, all of God, that blefs Mankind or mend.
Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives;
The ftrength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the Sun;
So two confiftent motions act the Soul;
And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.'
Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.

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EPISTLE

IV.

H HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim,
Good, Pleafure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy name:

That fomething ftill which prompts th' eternal figh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool, and wife.
Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow?
Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with Di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?

Where grows?-where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil:
Fix'd to no fpot is happiness fincere,

"Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where:

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