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, control the flood, Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground. 'Til, 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: Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right; To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, And own'd a Father when he own'd a God. Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then; For nature knew no right divine in men, No ill could fear in God; and understood A sovereign being, but a sovereign good. True faith, true policy, united ran, That was but love of God, and this of man. 4* 1 Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms en sacr undone, ars gre Th' enormous faith of many made for one; Den firs this hea b 'Til superstition taught the tyrant awe, pla Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid, sound, Lon When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, E Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; Then sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault no more; Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore; Then first the Flamen tasted living food; : Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood; With heaven's own thunders shook the world below, And play'd the god an engine on his foe. So drives self-love through just and through To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust: 'Twas then the studious head, or gen'rous mind, Es can' Foll'wer of God, or friend of human kind, faith Poet or patriot rose but to restore all mu th The faith and moral, nature gave before; made To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade; For forms of government let fools contest; بت نا His can't be wrong, whose life is in the right: But all mankind's concern is charity: All must be false that thwart this one great end; And all of God that bless mankind, or mend. Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; : The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. On their own axis as the planets run, Thus God and nature link'd the gen'ral frame, And bade self-love and social be the same, |