Who, foe to Nature, hears the general groan, And every death its own avenger breeds; 165 170 175 180 "Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beafts 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, "And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind : "Here fubterranean works and cities fee; "There towns aërial on the waving tree. "Learn each small People's genius, policies, "The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees "How those in common all their wealth bestow, "And Anarchy without confufion know; "And these for ever, though a Monarch reign, "Their separate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvary'd laws preserve 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, 185 190 « And "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong, "And for those Arts mere Instinct could afford, Here rofe one little ftate; another near 195 200 Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or fear. What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow; 205 Converfe and Love mankind might ftrongly draw, VARIATIONS. Ver. 197. in the first Editions, Thus Who for those Arts they learn'd of brutes before, Ver. 201. Here rofe one little state, &c.] In the MS. thus, The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot; Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd are friends. Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown, Till common interest plac'd the fway in one. 210 220 VI. Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, prieft, and parent, of his growing state: On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. He from the wondering furrow call'd the food, Taught to command the fire, control the flood, Draw forth the monsters of th' abyfs profound, Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground. Till drooping, fickening, dying, they began Whom they rever'd ás God to mourn as Mán: Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor'd One great Firft 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 diftin&t was known, And fimple Reason never fought but one : Ere Wit oblique had broke that steddy light, 230 235 No ill could fear in God; and understood A fovereign being, but a fovereign good. True True faith, true policy, united ran, That was but love of God, and this of Man. 240 Who first taught fouls enflav'd, and realms un done. Th' enormous faith of many made for one; That proud exception to all Nature's laws, T'invert the world, and counter-work its Caufe? Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid, And Gods of Conquerors, Slaves of Subjects made: She 'miḍft 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, 250 255 260 265 With heaven's own thunders fhook the world below, 270 So drives felf-love, through juft, and through unjust, All join to guard what each defires to gain. 'Twas then the studious head or generous mind, The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before; Taught Power's due ufe to People and to Kings, 275 280 285 Taught nor to flack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 That touching one must strike the other too; Till jarring interests of themselves create VOL. II. Th' according music of a well-mix'd State. 295 Wher |