Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To shun their poison, and to choose their food? 100 Prescient, the tides or 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?
III. 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 ether 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, 125
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 burn;
Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These nat❜ral love maintain'd, habitual those :
The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Mem❜ry and forecast just returns 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.
IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they blindly The state of nature was the reign of God: Self-love and social at her birth began, Union the bond of all things, and of man. Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid; Man walk'd with beast, joint-tenant of the shade; The same his table, and the same his bed;
No murder cloath'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 : Heav'n'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 fury-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 then to man the voice of Nature spake
"Go, from the creatures thy instructions take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beasts the physic of the field:
Thy arts of building from the bee receive;
"Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave ; "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 aërial on the waving tree.
"Learn each small people's genius, policies,
"The ants' republic, and the realm of bees;
"How those in common all their wealth bestow, 185 "And anarchy without confusion know ;
"And these for ever, tho' a monarch reign,
"Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain.
"Mark what unvary'd 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, 195 "Thus let the wiser make the rest obey;
"And for those arts mere instinct could afford, "Be crown'd as monarchs, or as Gods ador'd.” V. Great Nature spoke; observant men 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.
VER. 197. In the first Editions,
Who for those arts they learn'd of BRUTES before,
As Kings shall crown them, or as GoDs adore.
VER. 201. Here rose one little state, &c.] In the MS. thus:
The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot;
And love was nature's dictate; murder, not.
For want alone each animal contends;
Tigers with tigers, that remov'd, are friends.
Plain nature's wants the common mother crown'd,
She pour'd her acorns, herbs, and streams around.
No treasure then for rapine to invade ;
What need to fight for sun-shine, or for shade?
And half the cause of contest was remov'd,
When beauty could be kind to all who lov❜d,
Did here the trees with ruddier burthens 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 may 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 harms)
The same which in a sire the sons obey'd,
A prince the father of a people made.
VI. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch
King, priest, and parent of his growing state;
On him, their second Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood, 220
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch the aërial eagle to the ground.
Till drooping, sick'ning, dying, they began
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as man:
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explor'd
One great first father, and that first ador'd.
Or plain tradition that this all begun,
Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son;
The worker from the work distinct was known,
And simple reason never sought but one :
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