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To Man imparts it; but with fuch a view

As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear,
Death ftill draws nearer, never feeming near.
Great ftanding miracle! that Heav'n affign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

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II. Whether with Reason, or with Instinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them beft; To blifs alike by that direction tend,

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

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Cares not for service, or but ferves when preft,
Stays 'till we call, and then not often near;
But honest 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 Reafon labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reason never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 84. in the MS.

While Man, with op'ning views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge strays :
Too weak to chufe, yet chufing ftill in hafte,
One moment gives the pleasure and distaste.

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See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And Reafon raife o'er Inftinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.

Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To fhun their poison, and to chufe their food? 100
Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand?
Who made the spider parallels defign,

Sure as De moivre, without rule or line?

Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore

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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 its
proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a Whole, the Whole to bless,
On mutual Wants built mutual Happiness :
So from the firft, eternal ORDER ran,

And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ather keeps,

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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,

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Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace;'
They love themselves, a third time, in their race.
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 lafting bands;
Reflection, Reason, ftill the ties improve,

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At once extend the int'reft, and the love;
With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn; 135
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 rofe,

These nat❜ral love maintain'd, habitual thofe : 140 The laft, fcarce ripen'd into perfect Man,

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Saw helplefs him from whom their life began:
Mem'ry and fore-caft just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd, 145
Still spread the int'reft, and preferv'd the kind.
IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they blindly

trod;

The ftate of Nature was the reign of God :
Self love and Social at her birth began,
Union the bond of all things, and of Man.

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Pride then was not; nor Arts, that Pride to aid;
Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the fhade;
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 fhrine with gore unftain'd, with gold undrest,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blameless priest:
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 just disease 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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160

16;

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See him from Nature rifing flow to Art! To copy Inftinet then was Reason's part; Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake"Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions 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 amongst 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 these without further hesitation.

"Thy arts of building from the bee receive; 175 "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,

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"And hence let Reafon, late, inftru&t Mankind: Here fubterranean works and cities fee; "There towns aerial 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, "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 preferve each state, "Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate. 190 "In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw, "Entangle Juftice in her net of Law,

VER. 174. Learn from the beafts, etc.] See Pliny's Nat. Hift. 1. viii. c. 27, where several inftances are given of Animals difcovering the medicinal efficacy of herbs, by their own use of and pointing out to fome operations in the art of healing, by their own practice.

them;

VER. 177. Learn of the little Nautilus] Oppian. Halieut. lib. i. describes this fish in the following manner : "They "fwim on the surface of the fea, on the back of their shells, "which exactly resemble the hulk of a ship; they raise two "feet like mafts, and extend a membrane between, which "serves as a fail; the other two feet they employ as oars at the fide. They are usually seen in the Mediterranean."

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