OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH
I. The whole universe one system of society, v. 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor vet wholly for another, v. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, v. 49. II. Reason or instinct operate alike to the good of each indi vidual, v. 79. Reason or instinct operate also to society in all animals, v. 99. III. How far society carried by instinct, v. 109; how much farther by reason, v. 131. IV. Of that which is called the State of Nature, v. 147. Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, v. 166; and in the forms of society, v. 176. V. Origin of political societies, v. 100, origin of mo archy, v. 207. Patriarchal government, v. 212. VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the same principle of love, r. 215. c. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear, v. 237, c. The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good, v. 266. Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle, v.285. Mixed government, v. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, v. 300, &c.
HERE then we rest. The Universal Cause
Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."
In all the madness of superfluous health,
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day,
But most be present, if we preach or pray.
I. Look round our world; behold the chain of love Combining all below and all above.
See plastic Nature working to this end,
The single atoms each to other tend;
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace,
See matter next, with various life endued,
Press to one centre still, the general good;
See dying vegetables life sustain,
See life dissolving vegetate again:
All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die,)
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving, soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least,
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All serv'd, all serving; nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown,
Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good, Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food? Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn, For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn.. Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?--Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings. Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?--Loves of his own and raptures swell the note. The bounding steed you pompously bestride Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride. Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?-The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain. Thine the full harvest of the golden year?--Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer. The hog that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call, Lives on the labour of this lord of all.
Know Nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" " See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose: And just as short of reason he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all. Grant that the powerful still the weak control; 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, spare the dove? Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?--Man cares for all; to birds he gives his woods, To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods; For some his interest prompts him to provide, For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride: All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy Th' extensive blessing of his luxury. That very life his learned hunger craves, He saves from famine, from the savage saves; Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, And till he ends the being makes it blest;
Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou, too, must perish when thy feast is o'er!
To each unthinking being Heav'n, a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it, but with such a view
As while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and so remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that Heav'n assign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.
II. Whether with reason or with instinct blest. Know all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best; 30 To bliss alike by that direction tend,
And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide,
What
pope or council can they need beside?
Reason, however able, cool at best,
Cares not for service, or but serves when prest.
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But honest instinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit,
While still too wide or short is human wit;
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reason labours at in vain.
This, too, serves always; reason 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 reason 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 shun their poison, and to chuse their food? Prescient, the tides or tempest to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand?
Who made the spider parallels design,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the stork, Columbus like, explore
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the counsel, states the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
III. God in the nature of each being founds
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds;
But as he fram'd the whole the whole to bless,
On autual 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 ether keeps,
Or breathes thro' air, or shoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profuse on carth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,
Each loves itself, but not itself alone,
Each sex desires alike, till two are one.
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace:
They love themselves a third time in their race.
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend;
The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend:
The
young dismiss'd to wander earth or air,
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care;
The link dissolves,. each seek a fresh embrace,
Another love succeeds another race.
A longer care man's helpless kind demands;
That longer ca e contracts more lasting bands:
Reflection, reason, still the ties improve,
At once extend the interest and the love;
With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn;
Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;
And still new needs, new helps, new habits, rise,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood and as another rose,
These natural love maintain'd, habitual those : 140
The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Memory and forecast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd,
Still spread the interést, and preserv'd the kind.
IV. Nor think in Nature'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 beast, joint tenant of the shade;
The same his table, and the same his bed;
No murder cloth'd him, and no murder fed:
In the same temple, the resounding wood,
All vocal beings hymn'd their equel God!:
The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:
Heav'n's attribute was universal 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 just disease to luxury succeeds,
And every death its own avenger breeds;
The fury-passions from that blood began,
And turn'd on man a fiercer savage, man,
See him from nature rising slow. to art!
To copy instinct then was reason's part:
Thus then to man the voice of Nature spake---
"Go, from the creatures thy instructions take:
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;
The arts of building from the bee receive:
Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave;
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
Here, too, all forms of social union find,
And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind: 180
Here subterranean works and cities see;
There towns aërial on the waving tree.
Learn each small people's genius, policics,
The ants' republic, and the realm of bees;
How those in common all their wealth bestow,
And anarchy without confusion know;
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