That graft benevolence on charities.

140

145

150

155

Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These natural love maintained, habitual those :
The last, scarce ripened into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began :
Memory and forecast just returns engage;
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude and hope combin'd,
Still spread the interest and preserve 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 walked with beast, joint tenant of the shade ;
The same his table, and the same his bed;
No murder cloth'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:
Heaven'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 general groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.
But just disease to luxury succeeds,
And every death its own avenger breeds :
The fury-passions from that blood began,
And turned 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 beast 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 ærial on the waving tree.

Learn each small people's genius, policies,
The ant's republic, and the realm of bees;
How those in common all their wealth bestow,
And anarchy without confusion know ;
And these forever, though a monarch reign,
Their separate cells, and properties maintain.
Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state,
Laws, wise as nature, and as fixed as fate.
In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw,
Entangle justice in her net of law,

185

190

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 man obey'd ;
Cities were built, societies were made:
Here rose one little state, another near
Grew by like means, and joined thro' love of fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens 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.

200

205

Converse and love, mankind might strongly draw,
When love was liberty, and nature law.

Till common interest placed the sway in one.

Thus states were form'd: the name of king unknown,

'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.

210

VI. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch sate, 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 the abyss profound, Or fetch the aerial eagle to the ground; 'Till drooping, sickening, dying, they began

220

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.
On 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 the allegiance then,
For nature knew no right divine in men:
Nor 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.

Who first taught soul's enslav'd, and realms undone, The enormous faith of many made for one; That proud exception to all nature's laws, T' invert the world, and counterwork its cause. Force first made conquest, and that conquest law; 'Till superstition taught the tyrant awe. Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,

225

230

235

240

245

255

And Gods of conquerors, slaves of subjects made:
She, 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray
To Power unseen, and mightier far than they:
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest ahodes;
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods;
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust:
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride.
Then sacred seemed the 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;

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265

With heaven's own thunders shook the world below,
And played the God an engine on his foe.

So drives self-love, through just and through unjust,

270

To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust ;
The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws.
For what one likes, it others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel?
How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?
His safety must his liberty restrain :
All join to guard what each desires to gain.
Forced into virtue thus, by self-defence,

275

E'en kings learn'd justice and benevolence :

280

Self-love forsook the path it first pursu'd,

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, rose but to restore

285

The faith that mortal Nature gave before;

Resumed her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew;

Taught power's due use to people and to kings,
Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings,
The less or greater set so justly true,

290

That touching one must strike the other too;

'Till jarring interests of themselves create

Th' according music of a well mix'd state.

Such is the world's great harmony, that springs

295

From order, union, full consent of things:

Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made

To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade ;

More powerful each as needful to the rest,

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest;

300

Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best :
For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right;
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity;

All must be false that thwart this one great end;

3

305

And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend.

310

To make at once their circle round the sun;
So two consistent motions act the soul;
And one regards itself, and one the whole.
Thus God and nature link'd the general frame,
And bade self-love and social be the same.

Man, like the generous vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.
On their own axis as the planets run,

315

318

EPISTLE IV.

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Happiness.

False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered, from verse 19 to 27. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, 30. God intends happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, 37. As it is ne cessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, 51. But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness amongst mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, 70. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as it is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, 94. The folly of expecting that God should alter his gen eral laws in favor of particulars, 121. who are good; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, That we are not judges 133, &c. ten inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, 167. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but of

these

237. Superior talents, 259, &c.

in men possessed of them all, 269, &c.

That even

I can make no man happy, without virtue-instanced in riches, 185.-Honors, 193. Nobility, 205. Greatness, 217. Fame, With pictures of human infelicity That virtue alone constieternal, 309. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists tutes happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect is in a conformity to the order of providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, 316, &c.

On Happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die:

Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,