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That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd;
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief:
That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which feeks no intereft, no reward but praise;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.
Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for affistance call,

"Till one man's weakness grows the ftrength of all.
Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer still ally
The common intereft, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love fincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, thofe loves, those interests to refign;
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

Whate'er the paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbour with himself.
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,

The poor contents him with the care of heaven.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chemift in his golden views
Supremely bleft, the poet in his muse.

See fome ftrange comfort every state attend, And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend: See fome fit paffion every age fupply,

Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:
Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :
Scarfs, garters, gold, amufe his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble ftill, as that before;
'Till tir'd he fleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
Mean-while opinion gilds with varying rays
Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope fupply'd,
And each vacuity of fenfe by pride:
Thefe build as faft as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble joy;
One profpect loft, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is given in vain;

Even mean felf-love becomes, by force divine,
The fcale to measure others wants by thine.
See! and confefs, one comfort ftill must rise;
'Tis this, Tho' man's a fool, yet GOD IS WISE.

III.

EPISTLE

Of the Nature and State of Man with refpect 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 reason, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the State of Nature, verfe 144. Reafon instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166, and in the forms of fociety, ver. 176. V. Origin of political focieties, ver. 196. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal go

vernment, v. 212. VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the same principle, of love, 231, &c. Origin of fuperftition and tyranny, from the fame principle, of fear, ver. 237, &c. The influence of felf-love operating to the focial 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 present, 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 perifh other forms supply,
(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-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
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 throat?
Loves of his own and raptures fwell the note.
The bounding steed 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 ufe!" "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 controul;

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, spare 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 fish his floods;
For fome his intereft prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:

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