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Who, foe to Nature, hears the general groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.
But juft 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 instinct then was reason's part;
Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake-

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"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,

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"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 créatures sway,
"Thus let the wifer make the rest obey:

"And for those Arts mere Instinct could afford,
"Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd."
V. Great Nature spoke; observant Man obey'd;
Cities were built, Societies were made :

Here rofe one little ftate; another near

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Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the streams in purer rills descend?

What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow; 205
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.

Converfe and Love mankind might ftrongly draw,
When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 197. in the first Editions,

Thus

Who for those Arts they learn'd of brutes before,
As Kings fhall crown them, or as Gods adore.

Ver. 201. Here rofe one little state, &c.] In the MS. thus,

The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot;
And Love was Nature's dictate; Murder, not.
For want alone each animal contends;

Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd are friends.
Plain Nature's wants the common mother crown'd,
She pour'd her acorns, herbs, and streams around.
No Treasure then for rapine to invade,
What need to fight for fun-fhine or for shade?
And half the caufe of conteft was remov'd,
When beauty could be kind to all who lov'd.

Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown,

Till common interest plac'd the fway in one.
'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms,
Diffusing bleffings, or averting harms)
The fame which in a fire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

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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,
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,

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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.

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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?
Force first made Conquest, and that conqueft, Law;
Till Superftition taught the tyrant awe,

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,
To Power unfeen, and mightier far than they :
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
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,
Whose 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 spite, and heaven on pride,
Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew Marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then firft the Flamen tafted living food;
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;

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With heaven's own thunders fhook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

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So drives felf-love, through juft, and through unjust,
To one man's power, ambition, lucre, luft:
The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the caufe
Of what reftrains him, Government and Laws.
For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel?
How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprize, a stronger 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 learn'd justice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.

'Twas then the studious head or generous mind,
Follower of God, or friend of human kind,
Poet or Patriot, rofe but to restore

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

Taught Power's due ufe to People and to Kings,

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

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.
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs
From Order, Union, full Consent of things:
F

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