ERE then we reft: "The Univerfal Caufe
"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws. "
In all the madnefs 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 atons each to other tend,.
Attract, attracted to, the next în place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See Matter next, with various life endu'd,
Prefs to one centre ftill, the gen'ral Good.
See dying vegetables life fuftain,
See life diffolving vegetate again:
All forms that perifh 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 Soul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
Made Beaft in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft;
VER. 1. In feveral Edit. in 4to.
Learn, Du'nofs, learn!" The Univerfal Caufe, etc.
fit Passion every Age supply, Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
All ferv'd, all ferving; nothing ftands 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 fpreads the flowry 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 fteed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that ftrews the plain?
The birds of heav'n fhall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and juftly, the deferving fteer:
The hog, that plows not, nor obeys thy call,.
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.
Know, Nature's children shall 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 short of reason He must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
After ver. 46. in the former Editions.
What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him.!
All this he knew; but not that 'twas to eat him.
As far as Goole could judge, he reason'd right;
But as to Man, miftook the matter quite..
Grant that the pow'rful still 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, stooping 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 fish his floods;
For fome his int'reft prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
All feed on one vain Patron, and enjoy
Th' extensive bleffing of his luxury.
That 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 blest :
Which fees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd Man, by touch etherial flain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er !
To each unthinking being, Heav'n 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 :
VER. 68. Than favour'd Man, etc.] Several of the ancients, and many of the orientals fince, efteemed thofe who were ftruck by lightning as facred perfons, and the particular favourites of Heaven.
|