III.
Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to
SOCIETY.
I. THE whole univerfe one fyftem of fociety, ver. 7. &c. Nothing made wholly for itfelf, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happincfs of animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or instinct operate alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. Reafon or inftinct operate alfo to fociety in all animals, verfe 109. III. How far fociety carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reafon, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the State of Nature, verfe 144. Reafon inftructed by inftinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166, and in the forms of fociety, ver. 176. V. Origin of political focicties, ver. 196. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, v. 212. VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the fame principle, of love, 231, &c. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the fame principle, of fear, ver. 237, &c. The influence of felf-love operating to the fccial and public good, ver. 266. Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixt government, ver. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c.
HERE then we reft? "The Universal Cause
"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws." In all the madness of fuperfluous health, The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth, Let this great truth be prefent night and day; But most be prefent, if we preach or pray.
Look round our world; behold the chain of love
Combining all below and all above.
See plaftic nature working to this end,
The fingle 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 endu'd,
Prefs to one centre ftill, the general good.
See dying vegetables life sustain,
See life diffolving vegetate again :
All forms that perish other forms fupply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the fea of matter born,
They rife, they break, and to that fea return,
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preferving foul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beaft in aid of man, and man of beast;
All ferv'd, all ferving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy paftime, 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 afcends and fings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his threat?
Loves of his own and raptures fwell the note.
The bounding feed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that Arews the plain?
The birds of heaven fhall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harveft of the golden year?
Part pays, and juftly, the deferving steer:
The hog that plows not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.
Know, nature's children fhall 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 goofe: And just as fhort of reafon he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the powerful fill 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, ftooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove? Admires the jay the infect's gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela fings? Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods, To beafts his pastures, and to fifh his floods; For fome his intereft prompts him to provide, For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy
Th' extenfive bleffing of his luxury,
That very life his learned hunger craves,
He faves from famine, from the favage faves;
Nay, feafts the animal he dooms his feast,
And, till he ends the being, makes it bleft:
Which fees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd man by touch ethereals flain.
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 fuch a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too;
The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that heaven affign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.
II. Whether with reason, or with instinct bleft,
Know, all enjoy that power which fuits them best;
To blifs 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 fervice, or but ferves when preft,
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But honeft inftinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'er-fhoot, but just to hit;
While ftill too wide or fhort is human wit;
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reafon labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, reafon 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 reafon 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 fhun their poison, and to chufe their food?
Prefcient, the ties or tempefts to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand?
Who made the fpider parallels defign,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, ftates the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets its proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a whole, the whole to blefs,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness :
So from the firft, eternal ORDER ran,
And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
Whate'er of life all quick'ning aether keeps,
Or breathes thro' air, or fhoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,
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