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"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;

"Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, 195 "Thus let the wifer make the rest obey:

"And for thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Man obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made:

Here rofe one little ftate; another near

200

Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the ftreams in purer rills defcend?
What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow; 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.

VARIATION S.

Ver. 197, in the first Editions,

Who for those Arts they learn'd of brutes before,
As Kings fhall crown them, or as Gods adore.

Ver. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, &c.] In the MS. thus:
The neighbours leagu'd to guard their 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 lov'd.

Thus

210

Thus ftates were form'd; the name of King unknown,
Till common intereft plac'd the sway in one.
'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms,
Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms)
The fame which in a fire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

220

VI. Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, prieft, and parent, of his growing state: On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. He from the wondering furrow call'd the food, Taught to command the fire, controul the flood, Draw forth the monsters of th' abyfs profound, Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground. Till drooping, fickening, 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,

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Convey'd unbroken faith from fire to fon;

The worker from the work diftinct was known,

And fimple Reason never fought but one:

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Ere Wit oblique had broke that steady light,
Man, like his Maker, faw that all was right;
To Virtue, in the paths of Pleafure 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 fovereign being, but a fovereign good.

235

True

True faith, true policy, united ran;

That was but love of God, and this of Man.

240

Who first 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 counter-work its Cause?
Force first made Conqueft, and that conqueft, Law;
Till Superftition taught the tyrant awe,

Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,

And Gods of Conquerors, Slaves of Subjects made : She 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's found, When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,

250

To Power unfeen, and nightier far than they:
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rise :
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft abodes;
Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust,

255

Whose 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 spite, and heaven 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;

265

With heaven's own thunders fhook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

270

So drives Self-love, through juft, and through unjuft,
To one man's power, ambition, lucre, luft:
The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the caufe
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 surprize, a stronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty reftrain :

All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by Self-defence,
Ev'n Kings learn'd justice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.

275

280

'Twas then the ftudious head or generous mind,

Follower of God, or friend of human kind,

Poet or Patriot, rofe but to restore

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The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If rot God's Image, yet his fhadow drew:
Taught Power's due use to People and to Kings,
Taught nor to flack, nor ftrain its tender ftrings,
The lefs, or greater, fet fo juftly true,

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That touching one must strike the other too;

Till jarring interests of themfelves create

Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd State.

Such is the world's great harmony, that fprings
From Order, Union, full Confent of things:

295

VOL. XLVI.

F

Where

300

Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty, made
To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade;
More powerful each as needful to the rest,
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 beft:

For Modes of Faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right;
In Faith and Hope the world will difagree,

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But all Mankind's concern is Charity:

All must be falfe that thwarts this One great End;
And all of God, that blefs Mankind, or mend.
Man, like the generous 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;

310

315

So two confiftent motions act the Soul;

And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.

Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame, And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.

ARGUMENT

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