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And, O thou fluggard! tell me why the ant,
Midft fummer's plenty thinks of winter's want;
By conftant journies careful to prepare

Her ftores; and, bringing home the corny ear,
By what inftruction does the bite the grain,
Left, hid in earth, and taking root again,

It might elude the forefight of her care?

Diftinct, in either infect's deeds, appear

The marks of thought, contrivance, hope, and fear.
Fix thy corporeal and internal eye

'On the young gnat, or new-engender'd fly;
Or the vile worm, that yefterday began

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To crawl; thy fellow-creatures, abject man!

Like thee they breathe, they move, they tafte, they fee;

They show their paffions, by their acts, like thee:

Darting their ftings, they previously declare

Defign'd revenge, and fierce intent of war.

Laying their eggs, they evidently prove

The genial pow'r and full effect of love.
Each, then, has organs to digeft his food;
One to beget, and one receive the brood;

Has limbs and finews, blood, and heart, and brain,

'Life and her proper functions to fuftain,

Tho' the whole fabrick fmaller than a grain!
What more can our penurious reafon grant
To the large whale or caftled elephant?
To thofe enormous terrors of the Nile,
The crefted fnake, and long-tail'd crocodile;
Than that all differ but in fhape and name,
Each deftin'd to a lefs or larger frame?
For potent Nature loves a various act,

Prone to enlarge, or ftudious to contra&;

'Now forms her work too fmall, now too immenfe, And fcorns the measures of our feeble fenfe.

The object, fpread too far, or rais'd too high, 'Denies it's real image to the eye;

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• Too

Too little, it eludes the dazzled fight,

• Becomes mix'd blackness or unparted light:

• Water and air the varied form confound;

The ftraight looks crooked, and the fquare grows round.
Thus, while with fruitless hope and weary pain,
We feek great Nature's power, but feek in vain,
Safe fits the goddess in her dark retreat;
Around her myriads of ideas wait,

And endless shapes, which the mysterious queen
Can take or quit, can alter or retain,

As from our loft purfuit fhe wills to hide

• Her clofe decrees, and chaften human pride.
• Untam'd and fierce the tiger still remains,
He tires his life in biting on his chains;
For the kind gifts of water and of food
Ungrateful, and returning ill for good,

He feeks his keeper's flesh, and thirfts his blood:
While the strong camel, and the gen'rous horse,
• Reftrain'd and aw'd by man's inferior force,
Do to the rider's will their rage fubmit,

And answer to the fpur, and own the bit;

Stretch their glad mouths to meet the feeder's hand, "Pleas'd with his weight, and proud of his command.

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Again the lonely fox roams far abroad,

On fecret rapine bent and midnight fraud;

Now haunts the cliff, now traverses the lawn,
And flies the hated neighbourhood of man:

• While the kind spaniel, and the faithful hound,
(Likeft that fox in fhape and fpecies found)

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• Refufes thro' thefe cliffs and lawns to roam,
Purfues the noted path, and covets home;
Does with kind joy domestick faces meet,
Takes what the glutted child denies to eat,
And dying, licks his long-lov'd master's feet.

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By what immediate cause they are inclin'd,

In many acts, 'tis hard, I own, to find.

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• I fee in others, or I think I fee,

• That strict their principles and ours agree.

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Evil, like us, they fhun, and covet good,
Abhor the poison, and receive the food.
Like us they love or hate; like us they know
To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe:
With feeming thought their action they intend,
And use the means proportion'd to the end.
• Then vainly the philofopher avers

That Reason guides our deed, and Instinct theirs.
How can we justly diff'rent causes frame,

• When the effects entirely are the fame?
Inftinct and Reason how can we divide?
'Tis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride.
With the fame folly, fure, man vaunts his fway,
If the brute beast refuses to obey.

'For, tell me, when the empty boaster's word
Proclaims himself the universal lord,

Does he not tremble left the lion's paw Should join his plea against the fancy'd law? • Would not the learned coward leave the chair, • If in the schools or porches fhould appear The fierce hyæna or the foaming bear?

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The combatant too late the field declines, When now the fword is girded to his loins. When the fwift veffel flies before the wind, Too late the failor views the land behind:

' And 'tis too late now back again to bring

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Inquiry, rais'd and tow'ring on the wing;
Forward fhe ftrives, averfe to be witheld
From nobler objects and a larger field.

• Confider with me this ætherial space,

Yielding to earth and fea the middle place:

Anxious, I ask ye how the penfile ball

• Should never ftrive to rife, nor never fear to fall?

I

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. When

When I reflect how the revolving fun

• Does round our globe his crooked journies run,
I doubt of many lands, if they contain

Or herd of beast or colony of man :
If any nation pafs their deftin'd days
Beneath the neighb'ring fun's directer rays;
• If any fuffer on the polar coaft,

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The rage of Arctos and eternal frost.

May not the pleasure of Omnipotence,
To each of thefe fome fecret good difpenfe?
Those who amidst the torrid regions live,
May they not gales unknown to us receive?
See daily fhow'rs rejoice the thirsty earth,
And bless the flow'ry buds fucceeding birth?
May they not pity us, condemn'd to bear

• The various heav'n of an obliquer sphere;

• While, by fix'd laws, and with a just return,

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They feel twelve hours that shade for twelve that burn;

And praise the neighb'ring fun, whofe conftant flame

Enlightens them with seasons still the fame ?

And may not thofe, whose distant lot is caft

• North beyond Tartary's extended waste,
• Where thro' the plains of one continual day,
• Six fhining months pursue their even way,

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And fix fucceeding urge their dusky flight,

• Obscur'd with vapours, and o'erwhelm'd in night;

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May not, I afk, the natives of these climes,

(As annals may inform fucceeding times)

To our quotidian change of heav'n prefer

• Their own viciffitude and equal share

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Of day and night difparted thro' the year?

May they not fcorn our fun's repeated race,

To narrow bounds prefcrib'd and little space;

• Haft'ning from morn, and headlong driv'n from noon, Half of our daily toil yet fcarcely done?

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• May

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May they not justly to our climes upbraid

• Shortnefs of night and penury of shade;

• That, ere our wearied limbs are justly blefs'd ⚫ With wholesome fleep and necessary reft,

• Another fun demands return of care,

• The remnant toil of yesterday to bear?

• Whilft, when the folar beams falute their fight, • Bold and fecure in half a year of light,

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Uninterrupted voyages they take

To the remoteft wood and fartheft lake,

Manage the fishing, and pursue the course

• With more extended nerves and more continu'd force;

' And when declining day forfakes their sky,

• When gath'ring clouds speak gloomy winter nigh, • With plenty for the coming feafon blefs'd,

• Six folid months (an age!) they live, releas'd From all the labour, procefs, clamour, woe,

• Which our fad scenes of daily action know :

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They light the fhining lamp, prepare the feast,

• And with full mirth receive the welcome guest;

• Or tell their tender loves (the only care

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Which now they fuffer) to the lift'ning fair;

And, rais'd in pleasure, or repos'd in ease,
(Grateful alternates of fubftantial peace!)

• They bless the long nocturnal influence, shed
On the crown'd goblet and the genial bed.
In foreign ifles which our difcov'rers find,
• Far from this length of continent disjoin'd,
• The rugged bear's or spotted lynx's brood,
Frighten the vallies and infeft the wood;

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The hungry crocodile and hiffing fnake,

Lurk in the troubled ftream and fenny brake; • And man untaught, and rav'nous as the beast,

Does valley, wood, and brake, and stream, infest: • Deriv'd these men and animals their birth

From trunk of oak or pregnant womb of earth?

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