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So, when small humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driven them out.
Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferr'd ;
Reason is here no guide, but still a guard;
'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this passion more as friend than foe;
A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends,
And sev'ral men impels to sev'ral ends:
Like varying winds, by other passions tost,
This drives them constant to a certain coast.
Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of case;
Thro' life 'tis follow'd, even at life's expence;
The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride;
All, all alike find reason on their side.

Th' Eternal Art, educing good from ill,
Grafts on this passion our best principle:
'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd;
The dross cements what else were too refin'd,
And in one int'rest body acts with mind.

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care, On savage stocks inserted learn to bear; The surest virtues thus from passions shoot, Wild Nature's vigour working at the root. What crops of wit and honesty appear From spleen, from obstinacy, hate, or fear! See anger, zeal and fortitude supply; Ev'n av`rice, prudence, sloth, philosophy; Lust, thro' some certain strainers well refin'd, Is gentle love, and charms all womankind; Eavy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave, Is emulation in the learn'd or brave; Nor virtue, male or female, can we name, But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.

Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride) The virtue nearest to our vice allied: Reason the bias turns to good from ill, And Nero reigns a Titus if he will. The fiery soul abhorr'd in Cataline, In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine: The same ambition can destroy or save, And makes a patriot as it makes a kuave.

This light and darkness in our chaos join'd, What shall divide? The God within the mind.

Extremes in Nature equal ends produce;
In man they join to some mysterious use:
Tho' each by turns the other's bounds invade,
As, in some well-wrought picture, light and
shade,

And oft' so mix, the diff'rence is too nice
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice.

Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,
That vice or virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black and white?
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain;
'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain.

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Vice is a mouster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, theu pity, then embrace. But where th' extreme of vice was ne'er agreed: Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on-the Tweed;

In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows
where.

No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour further gone thau he:
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

Virtuous and vicious ev'ry mau must be;
Few in th' extreine, but all in the degree:
The rogue and fool, by fits are fair and wise;
And ev'u the best, by fits, what they despise.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill;
For vice or virtue self directs it still;
Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal;
But Heaven's great view is one, and that the
whole:

That counterworks each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That, happy frailties to all ranks applied-
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief:
That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no int'rest, no reward but praise;
And builds on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

Heav'n forming each on other to depend,
A master, or servant, or a friend,

[all.

Bids each on other for assistance call,
Till one man's weakness grows the strength of
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common int'rest, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each home-felt joy that life herits here;
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to r

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See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride, bestow'd on all, a common friend :
See some fit passion ev'ry age supply;
Hope travels through, 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 plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and pray'r books are the toys of age:
Fleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.

Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supplied,
And each vacuity of sense by pride :
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble joy:
One prospect lost another still we gain;
And not a vanity is given in vain.
Ev'n mean self love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this-tho' man's a fool yet God is wise.

EPISTLE III.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY.

ARGUMENT.

The whole universe one system of Society.—Nothing made wholly for itself, nor wholly for another —The happiness of Animals mutual.-Reason or instint operates alike to the good of each individual Reason or instinct opcrates also to Society in all Animals-How far Society is carried by instinct How much further by reason. -Of that which is called the state of Nature-Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of Arts, and in the forms of Society.-Origin of political Societies.-Origin of Monarchy.-Patriarchal Government.—Origin of true Religion and Government, from the same principle of love.-Origin of Superstition and Tyranny, from the same principle of fear.-The influence of Self-love operating to the social and public good.-Restoration of true Religion and Government on their first principle.-Mixed Government—l'arious forms of each, and the true end of all.

HERE then we rest :-" The Universal Cause
"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."
In all the madness of superfluous health,
The train of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present 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 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.
Sce matter next, with various life endued,
Press to one centre still, the gen'ral 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 served, all serving: nothing stands alone; The chain holds ou, and where it ends unkuown.

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 fawu,
For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry 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.
Thine the fuli harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer.
|| The hog that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,

Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

Now, nature's children shall divide her care, The fur that warms a monarch warm'd a bear. While mau exclaims-"See all things for my

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And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the pow'rful still the weak con-
troul;

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 int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
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!
To each unthinking being, Heaven a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end!
To mau 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 Heav'n assign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

Whether with reason or with instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that pow'r 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 mest go right, the other may go wrong,
See then the acting aud comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And reason 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

Prescient, the tides of 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
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown
before?

Who calls the council, states the certain day? Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

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-quick'ning æther 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 int'rest and the love:
With choice we fix, with sympathy we barn;
Each virtue in cach passion takes its turn;
And still new needs, new helps, new babits
rise,

That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These nat ral love maintain, habitual those:
The last scarce ripen'd into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Mem'ry and forecast just returus engage;
That pointed back to youth, this on to age:
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combin'd,
Still spread the int'rest, and preserv❜d the kind.
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;

To shun their poison, and to choose their food? Union the bond of all things and of man.

Fride then was not, nor arts that pride to aid; Man walk'd with beast, joint tenaut 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
undrest;

Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:
Heaven's attribute was universal care;
And man's prerogative 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 gen'ral groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.
But just disease to luxury succeeds,
And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds;
The fary passions from that blood began,
And turn'd on man a fiercer savage, man.
See him from Nature rising slow to art!
To copy instinct then was reason's part;
Thus when to man the voice of Nature spake
"Go, from the creatures thy instructions
take:

"Learn from the birds what food the thickets

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"Learn of the little Nautilus to sail, "Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

"Here too all forms of social union find, "And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind: "Here subterranean works and cities see; "There towns aerial on the waving tree. "Learn each small people's genius, policies, "The ant's republic, and the realm of bees ; "How those in common all their wealth bestow,

And anarchy without confusion know; "And these for ever, tho' a monarch reign, "Their sep'rate cells and properties main

tain.

"Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state, "Laws wise as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate. "In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, "Entangle Justice in her net of law; "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong, "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.

"Yet go; and thus o'er all the creatures sway, "Thus let the wiser make the rest obey: "And for those arts mere instinct could af

ford,

"Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd."

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 thro' love or fear.

Did here the trees with ruddier burdens 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 int'rest plac'd the sway in one.
'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms,
Diffusing blessings, or averting harius),
The same which in a sire the sons obey'd,
A prince the father of a people made.

Till then, by Nature crown'd, each patriarch

sate

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And simple reason never sought but one :
Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light,
Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right;
To virtue in the paths of pleasure 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 sov'reign Being but a sov'reign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran;
That was but love of God, and this of Man.
Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realns

undone,

Th' enormous faith of many made for one; That proud exception to all Nature's laws, T'invert the world, and counterwork its

cause?

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She 'midst the lightnings blaze, and thunder's sonud,

When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd
the ground,

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they :
She from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Naw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise;
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes;
Fear ride her derils, and weak hope her
gods;

Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust ;
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
Aud, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would be-
lieve.

Zeal then, not charity, hecame the guide!
And hell was built on spite, and heaven on
pride.

Then sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault uo more; Altars grew marble then, aud reek'd with gore:

Then first the Flamen tasted living food,

Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood; With heaven's own thunders shook the world below,

And play'd the god an engine on his foe.

So drives self-love, thro' just, and thro' un

just;

To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust:
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 weaker may surprise, a stronger take?
His safety must his liberty restrain:
All join'd to guard what cach desires to gain.
Fore'd into virtue thus by self-defence,
Ev'a 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 gen'rous
mind,

Follower of God, or friend of human kind,
Poct or patriot, rose but to restore

The faith and moral Nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew:
Taught power's due use to people and to kings,
Taught nor to slack nor strain its tender
strings,

The less or greater set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other

too;

Till jarring intrests of themselves create
Th' according music of a well-mix'd state.
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs
From order, union, full consent of things:
Where small and great,where weak and mighty

made

To serve, not suffer; strengthen, not invade ;
More poa'rful each as needful 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 maukind'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 gen'rous vine, supported lives!
The strength he gains is from the 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 liuk'd the gen'ral

frame,

And bade seif-love and social be the same.

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