Gives not the useless knowledge of its end; II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blest, And find the means proportioned to their end. 75 80 85 Cares not for service, or but serves when prest, Stays till we call, and then not often near! But honest instinct comes a volunteer; Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit, While still too wide or short is human wit; 90 Sure by quick nature happiness to gain, 95 Who taught the nations of the field and wood To shun their poison, and to choose their food? Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand? 100 Who made the spider parallels design, Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line? 105 III. God, in the nature of each being, founds Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds: 110 But, as he fram'd the whole, the whole to bless, 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, 116 Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace; 120 125 There stops the instinct, and there ends the care; The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, Another love succeeds, another race. 130 A longer care man's helpless kind demands; That longer care contracts more lasting bands. At once extend the int'rest and the love; 135 Still as one brood, and as another rose, These nat❜ral love maintain'd, habitual those : 140 145 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, 150 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; In the same temple, the resounding wood, 155 All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God: The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest, 160 ESSAY ON MAN. But just disease to luxury succeeds, And every death its own avenger breeds; See him from nature rising slow to art! To copy instinct then was reason's part; 170 Thus then to man the voice of nature spake"Go, from the creatures thy instruction take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beasts the physic of the field; 66 Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "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, 180 "And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind: "How those in common all their wealth bestow, "And anarchy without confusion know; 185 "And these for ever, though a monarch reign, "Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvary'd laws preserves each state, "Laws wise as nature, and as fix'd as fate. 190 Entangle justice in her net of law, "In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw, 66 "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: V. Great Nature spoke; observant man obey'd; Here rose one little state; another near Grew by like means, and join'd through love or fear. 200 205 Converse and love, mankind might strongly draw, Thus states were form'd; the name of king unknown, 210 '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. 214 VI. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch sate King, priest, and parent, of his growing state: 220 225 |