Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, 195 Thus let the wifer make the rest obey:
"And for thofe Arts mere Inftin&t could afford,
Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd.” V. Great Nature fpoke; obfervant Man 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 ravish, Commerce could beftow, 205 And he return'd a friend, who came a foe. Converfe and Love mankind might strongly draw, When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.
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.
VER. 208. When Love was Liberty,] i. c. When Men had no. need to guard their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions; the love which each mafter of a family had for those under his care being their beft fecurity.
VARIATION S.
VER. 197. in the first Editions,
Who for thofe Arts they learn'd of brutes before,
As Kings fhall crown them, or as Gods adore.
VER. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, etc.] In the MS. thus,
The Neighbours leagu'd to guard the 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 ftreams around.
No Treasure then for rapine to invade,
What need to fight for fun-fhine or for fhade?
And half the caufe of conteft was remov'd,
When beauty could be kind to all who joy'd,
VI. Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch
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, 220
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyfs profound,
Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground.
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 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,
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.
Who firft taught fouls enflav'd, 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,
VER. 231. Ere Wit oblique, etc.] A beautiful allufion to the effects of the prifmatic glafs on the rays of light.
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, and when groan'd the
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 burfling 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,
Whofe attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell 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 firft the Flamen tafted living food;
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
With 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' unjust,
To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, luft:
'The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what reftrains him, Government and Laws.
For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What ferves one will, when many wills rebel?
How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprise, a ftronger take?
His fafety must his liberty restrain :
All join'd to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by Self-defence,
Ev'n Kings learn'd juftice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it firft purfa'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, rofe but to restore
The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before;
Refum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his fhadow drew:
Taught Pow'r's due use to People and to Kings,
Taught nor to flack, nor strain its tender ftrings, 290
The lefs, or greater, fet fo juftly 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 295
From Order, Union, full Confent of things:
Where small 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 centre bring
Beast, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.
For Forms of Government let fools conteft;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is best:
For Modes of Faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right:
VER. 283. 'Twas then, etc.] The poet feemeth here to mean the polite and flourishing age of Greece; and those benefactors to Mankind, which he had principally in view, were Socrates and. Ariftotle; who, of all the pagan world, spoke beft of God, and wrote beft of Government.
VER. 303. For Forms of Government let fools centeft;] The author of these lines was far from meaning that no one form of Government is, in itself, better than another (as, that mixed or limited Monarchy, for example, is not preferable to abfolute), but that no form of Government, however excellent or preferable, in itself, can be fufficient to make a people happy, unless it be adminiftered with integrity. On the contrary, the best fort of Government, when the form of it is preferved, and the adminiftration corrupt, is most dangerous.
In Faith and Hope the world will difagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity:
All must be falfe that thwart this One great End:
And all of God, that blefs Mankind, or mend. 310
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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