Who, foe to Nature, hears the general groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.
But just disease to luxury fucceeds,
And every death its own avenger breeds;
The Fury-paffions from that blood began,
And turn'd on Man, a fiercer favage, Man.
See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy instinct then was reafon's part;
Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake-

"Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions take:

165

170

"Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beasts the phyfic of the field; "Thy arts of building from the bee receive; "Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. "Here too all forms of focial union find,

175

"And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind: 180 "Here fubterranean works and cities fee;

"There towns aërial on the waving tree.
"Learn each small People's genius, policies,

"The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees;
"How thofe in common all their wealth bestow, 185
"And Anarchy without confufion know;
"And these for ever, though a Monarch reign,
"Their separate cells and properties maintain.
"Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state,
"Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate.
"In vain thy Reason finer webs fhall draw,
"Entangle Justice in her net of Law,

190

"And

"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too ftrong, "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, "Thus let the wifer make the rest obey:

"And for thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant Man obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made:

Here rofe one little state; another near

195

200

Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the ftreams in purer rills defcend?

What War could ravish, Commerce could beftow; 205
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.
Converfe and Love mankind might ftrongly draw,
When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.

Thus

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 197. in the first Editions,

Who for thofe Arts they learn'd of brutes before,
As Kings fhall crown them, or as Gods adore.

Ver. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, &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 ftreams around.
No Treasure then for rapine to invade,
What need to fight for fun-fhine or for fhade?
And half the caufe of conteft was remov'd,
When beauty could be kind to all who lov`d.

210

Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown,
Till common intereft plac'd the fway in one.
'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms,
Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms)
The fame which in a fire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

220

VI. Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch fate, King, priest, and parent, of his growing state: On him, their fecond Providence, they hung, Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. He from the wondering furrow call'd the food, Taught to command the fire, control the flood, Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground. Till drooping, fickening, dying, they began Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as Man: Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor'd

One

great First Father, and that first ador'd. Or plain tradition that this All begun,

Convey'd unbroken faith from fire to fon;

The worker from the work diftin&t was known,
And fimple Reafon never fought but one:
Ere Wit oblique had broke that fteddy light,
Man, like his Maker, faw that all was right;
To Virtue, in the paths of Pleasure trod,
And own'd a Father when he own'd a God.

225

230

LOVE all the faith, and all th' allegiance then;
For Nature knew no right divine in Men,

235

No ill could fear in God; and understood

A fovereign being, but a fovereign good.

True

True faith, true policy, united ran,

That was but love of God, and this of Man.

240

Who first taught fouls enflav'd, and realms undone.

Th' enormous faith of many made for one;

That proud exception to all Nature's laws,

Tinvert the world, and counter-work its Cause?
Force firft made Conqueft, and that conqueft, Law;
Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe,

Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,

And Gods of Conquerors, Slaves of Subjects made: She 'midft the lightning's blaze, and thunder's found, When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,

250

255

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To Power unfeen, and mightier far than they :
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft abodes;
Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;

And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride.
Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew Marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then firft the Flamen tafted living food;
Next his grim idol fmear'd with human blood;

265

With heaven's own thunders fhook the world below, And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

270

So drives felf-love, through juft, and through unjust,
To one man's power, ambition, lucre, luft:
The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what reftrains him, Government and Laws.
For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What ferves one will, when many wills rebel?
How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprize, a ftronger take?
His fafety must his liberty restrain :

All join to guard what each desires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by Self-defence,
Ev'n Kings learn'd justice and benevolence :
Self-love forfook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.

"Twas then the studious head or generous mind,
Follower of God, or friend of human kind,
Poet or Patriot, rofe 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 fhadow drew:

Taught Power's due ufe to People and to Kings,

275

280

285

Taught nor to flack, nor ftrain its tender ftrings, 290

The lefs, or greater, set so justly true,

That touching one must strike the other too;

Till jarring interests of themselves create

Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd State.
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs
From Order, Union, full Confent of things:

VOL. II.

F

295

Where