While Man exclaims, "See all things for my ufe!"
" See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose:
And just as short of reafon He must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Great that the pow'rful still the weak controul;
Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole:
Nature that Tyrant checks; he only knows,
And helps, another creature's wants and woes.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove?
Admires the jay the infect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela fings?
Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods;
For fome his int'reft prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
All feed on one vain Patron, and enjoy
Th' extenfive bleffing of his luxury.
That life his learned hunger craves,
He faves from famine, from the favage faves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feaft,
And, till he ends the being, makes it bleft;
Which fees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd Man by touch ethereal flain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er !
VER. 45. See all things for my ufe!] On the contrary, the wife man hath faid, The Lord hath made all things for bimself. Prov. xvi. 4. VER. 68. Than favour'd Man, etc.] Several of the ancients, and many of the Crientals fince, esteemed those who were struck by lightning as facred persons, and the particular favourites of Heaven.
VARIATIONS.
After ver. 46. in the former Editions.
What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him!
All this he knew; but not that 'twas to eat him.
As far as Goofe could judge, he reafon'd right;
But as to Man, miftook the matter quite.
To each unthinking being, Heav'n a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To Man imparts it; but with fuch a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear,
Death ftill draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great ftanding miracle! that Heav'n affign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.
II. Whether with Reason or with Inftin& bleft,
Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them beft;
To blifs alike by that direction tend,
And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full Inftinct is th' unerring guide,
What Pope or Council can they need befide?
Reafon, however able, cool at best,
Cares not for fervice, or but serves when prest,
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But honest Inftinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit ;
While ftill too wide or fhort is human Wit;
Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier Reafon labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reafon never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And Reafon raise o'er Instinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.
Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To fhun their poison, and to chuse their food?
After ver. 84. in the MS..
While Man, with op ning views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge ftrays:
Too weak to chufe, yet chufing ftill in hafte,
One moment gives the pleasure and diftaste...
Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand ?
Who made the fpider parallels defign,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, ftates the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets its proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a Whole, the Whole to bless,
On mutual Wants built mutual Happiness :
So from the first, eternal ORDER ran,
And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
Whate'er of life all-quick'ning æther keeps,
Or breathes thro' air, or fhoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the fky, or roll along the flood,
Each loves itself, but not itself alone,
Each fex defires alike, till two are one.
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace;
They love themfelves, a third time, in their race.
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 123
The mothers nurfe it, and the fires defend;
The young difmifs'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the Inftinct, and there ends the care;
The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace,
Another love fucceeds, another race.
A longer care Man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lafting bands:
Reflection, Reason, ftill the ties improve,
At once extend the int'reft, and the love:
With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn;
Each Virtue in each Paffion takes its turn;
E
And ftill new needs, new helps, new habits rife,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These nat❜ral love maintain'd, habitual thofe : 140
The laft, fcarce ripen'd into perfect Man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd, 145
Still fpread the int'reft and preferv'd the kind.
IV. Northink, inNATURE'S STATE they blindly trod; The State of Nature was the reign of God: Self-love and Social at her birth began, 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, All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God: The shrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft, Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blameless prieft: Heav'n's attribute was Univerfal Care, And Man's prerogative, to rule, but spare.
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 species, and betrays his own.
But juft difeafe to luxury fucceeds,
And ev'ry 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!
Το copy Inftinct then was Reafon's part;
Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake-
"Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions 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, instruct Mankind: 180 "Here fubterranean works and cities fee;
"There towns aëial on the waving tree.
"Learn each small People's genius, policies,
"The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees;
"How thofe in common all their wealth bestow, 185
"And Anarchy without confusion know;
"And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign,
"Their fep'rate 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,
"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the flrong too weak, the weak too ftrong.
VER. 173. Learn from the birds, etc.] It is a caution commonly practifed among Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreshments, to obferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds; and to venture on thefe without further hesitation.
VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, etc.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27. where feveral inftances are given of Animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of them ; and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice.
VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian. Halicut. 1. i. defcribes this fish in the following manner: "They fwim on the "furface of the fea, on the back of their shells, which exactly re"semble the hulk of a fhip; they raise two feet like masts, and ex"tend a membrane between, which ferves as a fail; the other "two feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are ufually feen "in the Mediterranean.'
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