wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or instinct operate alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. Reason or instinct operate also to society in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far society carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166, and in the forms of society, ver. 176. V. Origin of political societies, ver. 196. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, ver. 212. VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the same principle, of love, ver. 231, &c. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle, of fear, | ver. 237, &c. The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good, ver. 266. Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixed government, ver. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c. EPISTLE HIL HERE then we rest; "The Universal Cause 10 20 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 flowery 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. VARIATION. Ver. 1. In several editions in 4to. 30 Learn, Dulness, learn!" The Universal Cause, & Ca 50 Know, Nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monaich, 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: 60 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! 70 To each unthinking being, Heaven, 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 Heaven assign'd Its only thinking thing this turn of mind. II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best; To bliss alike by that direction tend, 80 And find the means proportion'd to their end. Cares not for service, or but serves when prest VARIATIONS. After ver. 46, in the former editions, 90 [him! What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat While man, with opening views of various ways, And Reason raise o'er Instinct as you can, In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man. 110 120 130 Who taught the nations of the field and wood To shun their poison, and to choose their food? 100 Prescient, the tides or tempests 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 Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before? Who calls the council, 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 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-quickening ether keeps, Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, Or pours profuse on earth, 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 seeks a fresh embrace, Another love succeeds, 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 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 interest, and preserve the kind. IV. Nor think, in Nature's state they blindly The state of Nature was the reign of God: [trod; 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 equal God: The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undress'd, Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blam.less priest: Heaven's attribute was universal care, And man's perogative, 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 general groan, Murders their species, and betrays his own. But just disease to luxury succeeds, And every death its own avenger breeds; 150 160 170 The Fury-passions from that blood began, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind: 180 190 200 1 V. Great Nature spoke; observant man obey'd; Cities were built, societies were made: Here rose one little state; another near Grew by like means, and join'd through love or fear Did here the trees with ruddier burthens bend, And there the streams in purer rills descend? What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow; And he return'd a friend, who came a foe. Converse 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 interest plac'd the sway in one. 'Twas Virtue only, (or in arts or arms, Diffusing blessings, or averting harms) The same which in a sire the sons obey'd, A prince the father of a people made. 210 VI. Til then, by Nature crown'd, each patriarch King, priest, and parent, of his growing state: [sate, On him, their second Providence, they hung, Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. VARIATIONS. Ver. 197, in the first editions, Who for those arts they learn'd of brutes before, The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common 230 He from the wondering furrow call'd the food, sound, 240 When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, 250 She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 261 So drives Self-love, through just, and through unTo one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust: [just, The same self love, in all, becomes the cause 271 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 shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, A weaker may surprise, a stronger take? His safety must his liberty restrain: All join to guard what each desires to gain. Fore'd into virtue thus, by self-defence, Ev'n kings learn'd justice and benevolence: Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, And found the private in the public good. "Twas then the studious head or generous mind, Follower of God, or friend of human kind, Poet or patriot, rose but to restoure The faith and moral, Nature gave before; VOL XIL 280 300 Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new; Yet make at once their circle round the Sun; Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame, And bade self-love and social be the same. ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV. OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS. 1. FALSE notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from ver. 19 to 77. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 30. God intends happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, ver. 37. As it is necessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 51. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. 70. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 77. The errour of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, ver. 94. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. 121. V That we are not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of, virtue, 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue: instanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Creatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 257, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men, possessed of | them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 307. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 326, &c. EPISTLE IV. OH HAPPINESS! Our being's end and aim! Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'erthy name: That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, 10 For which we bear to live, or dare to die, And fled from monarchs, St. JoHN! dwells with thee. Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind: This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; 20 Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 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 sense, and common case. Remember, man, "the Universal Cause Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" And makes what happiness we justly call, Subsist not in the good of one, but all. There's not a blessing individuals find, But some-way leans and hearkens to the kind: No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd hermit, rests self-satisfy'd: Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, Seck an admirer, or would fix a friend: Abstract what others feel, what others think, All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink: Each has his share; and who would more obtain, Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain. Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, VARIATION. 40 50 Ver. 1. Oh Happiness, &c.] in the MS. thus: More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence One common blessing, as one common soul. Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?. 60 72 81 Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. But Health consists with Temperance alone; And Peace, Oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own. The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gair; But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right? Of Vice or Virtue, whether blest or curst, Which meets contempt, or which compassion first ? Count all th' advantage prosperous Vice attains, 'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains: And grant the bad what happiness they would, One they must want, which is to pass for good. Who fancy bliss to Vice, to Virtue woe! Oh blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest, But fools, the good alone, unhappy call, For ills or accidents that chance to all. See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just! See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust! VARIATIONS. After ver. 52, in the MS. 90 100 [saves, Say not, "Heaven's here profuse, there poorly And for one monarch makes a thousand slaves." You'll find, when causes and their ends are [one. known, 'Twas for the thousand Heaven has made that After ver. 66, in the MS. 'Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay : The rest mad Fortune gives or takes away. All other bliss by accident 's debarr'd; But Virtue's, in the instant, a reward; In hardest trials operates the best, And more is relish'd as the more distrest. After ver. 92, in the MS. Let sober moralists correct their speech, No bad man's happy; he is great or rich: See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife!、 110 130 Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, Forget to thunder, and recall her fires? On air or sea new motions be imprest, Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast? When the loose mountain trembles from on high, Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? Or some old temple, uodding to its fall, For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall? But still this world (so fitted for the knave) Contents us not. A better shall we have? A kingdom of the just then let it be: But first consider how those just agree. The good must merit God's peculiar care; But who, but God, can tell us who they are? One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own spirit fell; Another deems him instrument of Hell; If Calvin feels Heaven's blessing, or its rod, Add health and power, and every earthly thing, Why bounded power? why private? why no king?" Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes? 170 180 To whom can riches give repute, or trust, Honour and shame from no condition rise; This cries, there is, and that, there is no God. 140 The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd. [cowl!” What shocks one part, will edify the rest, 150 "But sometimes Virtues tarves, while Vice is fed." What then? Is the reward of Virtue bread? That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil; The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil; The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, Where fully fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent; Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. But grant him riches, your demand is o'er? "No-shall the good want health, the good want power?" VARIATIONS. After ver. 116, in the MS. Of every evil, since the world began, The real source is not in God, but man, After ver. 142, in some editions, Give each a system, all must be at strife; What different systems for a man and wife! The joke, though lively, was ill-placed, and therefore struck out of the text. 200 "What differ more" (you cry)" than crown and Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood, Go! and pretend your family is young; Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. VARIATION. After ver. 172, in the MS. Say, what rewards this ille world imparts, Ver. 207. Boast the pure blood, &c.] In the MS, thus: The richest blood, right-honourably old, |