"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195 "Thus let the wifer make the rest obey; 200 "And for thofe Arts mere Instinct could afford, VARIATIONS. VER. 197. in the first Editions. Who for those Arts they learn'd of Brutes before, 206 VER. 201. Here rofe one little state, etc.] In the MS. thus, The Neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot: And Love was Nature's dictate, Murder, not. For want alone each animal contends; Tigers with Tigers, that remov'd, are friends. Converfe and Love mankind might ftrongly draw, When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law. Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown, 'Till common int'reft plac'd the fway in one. 210 "Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in aits or arms, Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms) The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd, A Prince the Father of a People made. VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patri arch fate, ; 215 King, prieft, and parent of his growing state 225 VER. 208. When Love was Liberty,] i. e. When men had no need to guard their native liberty from their governors by civil pactions; the love which each mafter of a family had for thofe under his care being their best security. 230 The worker from the work diftinct was known, That was but love of God, and this of Man. 240 Who first taught fouls enflav'd, and realms un done, Th' enormous faith of many made for one; That proud exception to all Nature's laws, T'invert the world, and counter-work its Caufe ? Force first made Conqueft, and that conqueft, Law; "Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe, 246 Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid, ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 250 VER. 231. Ere Wit oblique, etc.] A beautiful allufion to the effects of the prifmatic glass on the rays of light. She, from the rending earth and bursting skies, Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleft abodes; 255 265 Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore: So drives Self-love, thro' juft and thro' unjuft, 270 275 280 Self-love forfook the path it first pursu'd, And found the private in the public good. 285 'Twas then, the ftudious head or gen'rous mind, Follow'r of God or friend of human-kind, Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before; Re-lum'd her ancient light, not kindled new; If not God's image, yet his shadow drew : Taught Pow'rs due ufe to People and to Kings, Taught nor to flack, nor ftrain its tender strings, 290 The lefs, or greater, fet fo juftly true, That touching one muft ftrike the other too; 'Till jarring int'refts, of themselves create Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd State. Such is the World's great harmony, that springs 295 To serve, not suffer, ftrengthen, not invade; Draw to one point, and to one centre bring 300 VER. 283. 'Twas then, etc.] The poet feemeth here to mean the polite and flourishing age of Greece; and those benefactors to Mankind, which he had principally in view, were Socrates and Ariftotle; who, of all the pagan world, fpoke beft of God, and wrote best of Government. |