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, 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.
2. Whether with reason or with instinct blest, Know all enjoy that power which suits them best; 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 powers
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And reason raise o'er instinet 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 choose their food?
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 bade 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?
3. 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 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 thro' 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 :
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 preserv'd the kind.
4. 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.
The same self-love in all becomes the cause
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 worker may surprise, a stronger take?
To satigy mus, his liberty restrain :
Al, join to guard what each desires to gain.
Fore'd inte vietne thus by self-defence,
For Kings leser'd justice and benevolence:
Sol love to sook the path it first pursued,
And founề, the private in the public good.
Thugs cher the studious head, or generous mind,
Follower o. Goš, or friend of human kind,
Poet oc pacios, rose bu, të restore
The fail, and morni. Nature gave before;
Relum & her anoian, light, not kindled new;
I not clock image, yet his shadow drew;
Taught powo,& dic use to people and to kings,
Tanghi noc te slack the
The low or grante, se
The topching one mus
strain, its tender strings, se justly true.
strike the other 100;
Vil igmping interest, a themselves create 41. godording music of % meli-mix'è state.
Snol, so the wo465 gren, karmory, that springs Uson, order, union, fùil, consen, of things;
Whoa smyl, and gram, whart weak and mighty,
De sash, na voffer, strengthen, no: invade;
More poma hii, ancl. § noodți, to the rest,
And, in proportion as it blesses, blest;
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best:
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity:
All must be false that thwart this one great end, And all of God that bless mankind or mend.
Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; The strength 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 consistent motions act the soul,
And one regards itself, and one the whole.
Thus God and nature link'd the general frame, And bade self-love and social be the same.
The late Rev. Dr. Marsh, vicar
of Beckenham, fifty years ago
replied to Pope's well-known
lines:-
For modes of faith let senseless
bigots fight;
He can't be wrong whose life is
in the right.-Pope.
In Christian faith let Christian
He can't be right whose faith is
in the wrong.-Dr. Marsh.
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