Or pours profufe on Earth; one Nature feeds
The vital Flame, and fwells 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 defires alike, till two are one:

120

Nor ends the Pleafure with the fierce Embrace;
All love themselves, a third time, in their Race.
The Beast, the Bird, their common Charge attend, 125
The Mothers nurfe it, and the Sires defend;

The young difmifs'd to wander Earth or Air,
There ftops the Instinct, 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 lasting Bands:
Reflection, Reason, still the Ties improve,

At once extend the Int'rest, and the Love:
With Choice we fix, with Sympathy we burn,

Each Virtue in each Paffion takes its Turn ;

And still new Needs, new Helps, new Habits rife,
That graft Benevolence on Charities,

130

135

From

From private Sparkles raise the gen'ral Flame, 140 And bid Self-Love and Social be the fame.

Thus as one Brood, and as another rose,

Thefe nat'ral Love maintain'd, habitual thofe ;
The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect Man,

Saw helpless Him from whom their Life began: 145
Mem'ry and Forecast juft Returns engage,

That pointed back to Youth, this on to Age;
While Pleasure, Gratitude and Hope, combin'd,

Still fpread the Int'reft, and preferv'd the Kind.
Nor think in Nature's State they blindly trod; 150
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; 155
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 undrest, 169 Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless Priest:

Heav'ns

(13)

Heav'ns Attribute was Universal Care,

And Man's Prerogative to rule, but spare.

Ah how unlike the Man of Times to come!

170

Of half that live, the Butcher, and the Tomb; 165
Who, Foe to Nature, hears the gen'ral Groan,
Murders their Species, and betrays his own.
But just Disease 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 Savage, Man.
See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy Inftinit, then, was Reafon's Part;
Thus then to Man the Voice of Nature spake
"Go! from the Creatures thy Inftructions take;
"Learn from the Birds what Food the Thickets yeild;
"Learn from the Beasts the Phyfick 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.

D

175

180

"' Here

* Vide Oppian Halieut. Lib. I.

"Here too all Forms of focial Union find,
"And hence let Reafon, late, inftruct Mankind:
"Here Subterranean Works and Cities fee,
"There Towns Aerial on the waving Tree.
"Learn each Small People's Genius, Policies;
"The Arts Republic, and the Realm of Bees;
"How thofe in common all their Stores beftow,
"And Anarchy without Confufion know,
"And these for ever, tho' a Monarch reign,
"Their fep'rate Cells and Properties maintain.
"Mark what unvary'd Laws preserve their State,
"Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate.

"In vain thy Reason finer Webs fhall draw,

Entangle Juftice in her Net of Law,

"And Right too rigid harden into Wrong,

185

190

1195

"Still for the Strong too weak, the Weak too strong. "Yet Go! and thus o'er all the Creatures fway,

"Thus let the Wifer make the reft obey,

"Who for those Arts they learn'd of Brutes before, 200 "As Kings shall crown them, or as Gods adore." Great Nature spoke; obfervant Men obey'd;

Cities were built, Societies were made:

Here

( 15 )

Here rofe one little State; Another near

Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' Love or Fear. 205
Did here the Trees with ruddier Burdens bend,

And there the Streams in purer Rills descend ?
What War could ravish, Commerce could beftow,
And he return'd a Friend, who came a Foe.
Thus States were form'd ; the Name of King unknown,210
'Till common Int'reft plac'd the Sway in One.
Then VIRTUE ONLY (or in Arts, or Arms,
Diffusing Bleffings, or averting Harms)
The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

215

"Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, Priest, and Parent of his growing State: On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, Their Law, his Eye; their Oracle, his Tongue. He, from the wondring Furrow call'd their Food, 220 Taught to command the Fire, controul the Flood, Draw forth the Monsters of th' Abyss 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.

225

Then