Then fhar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,
And Gods of Conqu'rors, Slaves of Subjects made:
She 'midft the light'ning's blaze, and thunder's found,
When rock'd the mountains, aud 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 burfing 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, unjuft,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or luft ;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrauts would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And heav'n was built on fpite, and heav'n on pride*.
Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then firfl the Flamen tafting living food;
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
Which heav'n's own thunders fhook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.
So drives Self-love, thro' juft, and thro' unjuft,
To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, luft:
*This might be very well faid of thofe times, when no one was content to go to heaven without being received there on the footing of a God.
The fame felf-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 fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprize, a ftronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty reftrain;
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus by felf-defence,
Ev'n kings learnt juftice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it first purfu'd,
And found the private in the public good.
'Twas then, the fludious head or gen'rous mind,
Follow'r of God or friend of human-kind,
Poet or patriot, rose but to reflore
The faith and moral, nature gave
Refum'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 not to flack, nor flrain its tender ftrings,
The lefs, or greater, fet fo justly true,
That touching one must strike 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
From order, union, full confent of things:
Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty made
To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade ;
Draw to one point, and to one center bring
Beaft, man, or angel, fervant, lord, or king.
For forms of government let fools contest ;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft:
For modes of faith let gracelefs 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:
All must be falfe that thwart this one great end;
And, all of Ged, that blefs mankind or mend.
Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives;
The firength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own axis as the planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the fun :
So two confiftent motions acts the foul;
And one regards itfelf, and one the whole.
Thus God and nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade felf-love and focial be the fame,
H HAPPINESS!. our being's end and aim,
Good, pleafure, eafe, content! whate'er thy name:
That fomething fill 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't 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 harvefts 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 happinefs fincere,
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.
Afk of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind;
This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind;
Some place the blifs in action, fome in eafe,
Those call it pleasure, and contentment thefe ;
Some funk to beafts, find pleafure end in pain ;
Some fwell'd to Gods, confefs ev'n virtue vain ;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, fay they more or less
Then this, that happiness is happiness ?
Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave;
All ftates can reach it, and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common fenfe, and common ease,
Remember, man, the Univerfal Caufe
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws ;'
And makes what happiness we juftly call,
Subfift, not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a bleffing individuals find,
But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind ;
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd hermit refs felf-fatisfy'd :
Who moft to fhun or hate mankind pretend,
Seck an admirer, or would fix a friend :
Abftra&t what others feel, what others think,
All pleafures ficken, and all glories fink:
Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain,
Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.
ORDER is heav'n's first law; and this confeft,
Some are, and must be, greater than the reft,
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, fhocks all common sense.
Heav'n to mankind impartial we coufefs,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase,
All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumflance is not the thing;
Bliss is the fame in fubject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend :
Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
One common bleffing, as one common foul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were aqual, muft not all conteft ?
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