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The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear,
Death ftill draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that Heav'n affign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with Reason, or with Inftin&t bleft, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them best; To blifs alike by that direction tend,

And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full Inftinct is th' unerring guide,
What Pope or Council can they need beside ?
Reason, however able, cool at beft,

Cares not for fervice, or but ferves when prest,
Stays 'till we call, and then not often near,
But honeft Inftinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'er-fhoot, but juft to hit!

While ftill too wide or fhort is human Wit;
Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier Reason labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reason never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong,
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours!

VARIATIONS.

VER. 84. in the MS.

While Man, with op'ning views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge ftrays:
Too weak to chufe, yet chufing still in haste,
One moment gives the pleasure and distastę.

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And Reason raise o'er Instinct as you can,

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In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.
Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To fhun their poison, and to chuse their food?
Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand?
Who made the spider parallels design,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, ftates the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets it proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a Whole, the Whole to blefs,
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 fhoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds.
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 fex defires alike, 'till two are one.

Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace;
They love themselves, a third time, in their race.

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Thus beast and bird their common charge attend,

The mothers nurfe it, and the fires defend ;
The young difmifs'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the Inftinct, and there ends the care,
The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace,
Another love fucceeds, another race.

A longer care Man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lasting bands :
Reflection, Reason, ftill the ties improve,
At once extend the int'reft, and the love:
With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn;
Each Virtue in each Paffion 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,

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These nat❜ral love maintain'd, habitual thofe :
The laft, fcarce ripen'd into perfect Man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began :
Mem'ry and fore-cast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd, 145
Still fpread the int'reft, and preferv'd the kind.
IV. 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,

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;

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The fame his table, and the fame his bed;
No murder cloath'd him, and no murder fed.
In the fame temple, the refounding wood,
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God:
The shrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undreft,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blameless prieft:
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 fpecies, and betrays his own.
But juft difeafe to luxury fucceeds,

And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds ;
The Fury-paffions from that blood began,
And turn'd on Man, a fiercer favage, Man.

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See him from Nature rifing flow to Art! Το copy Inftinct then was Reason's part; Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake "Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take : "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beafts the phyfic of the field;

VER. 173. Learn from the birds, etc.] It is a caution commonly practifed among Navigators, when thrown upon a defert coaft, and in want of refreshments, to obferve what fruits have been touched by the Birds: and to venture on thefe without further hesitation.

VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, etc.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift, 1. viii. c. 27. where feveral instances are given of Animals discovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own ufe

"Thy arts of building from the bee receive;

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"Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

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

"And hence let Reafon, late, inftru&t Mankind : "Here fubterranean works and, cities feef; "There towns aërial on the waving tree.

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"Learn each fmall 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, tho' a Monarch reign,
"Their fep'rate 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,

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Entangle Juftice in her net of Law,

"And right too rigid, harden into wrong;

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"Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.

of them; and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice.

"They

VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian. Halicut. lib. i. defcribes this fish in the following manner : "fwim on the furface of the fea, on the back of their fhells, "which exactly resembles the hulk of a fhip; they raise two "feet like mafts, and extend a membrane between, which "ferve as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are usually feen in the Mediterranean."

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