That Virtue's ends from Vanity can raise,

245 Which seeks no int’rest, no reward but praise ; And build on wants, and on defects of mind, The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind.

Heav'n forming each on other to depends A master, or a servant, or a friend,

250 Bids each on other for affiftance call, "Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally The common int'rest, or endear the’tie. To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 Each home-felt joy that life inherits here ; Yet from the same we learn, in its decline, Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign; Taught half by Reason, half by mere decay, To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

260 Whate'er the Passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbour with himself. The learn'd' is happy nature to explore, The fool is happy that he knows no more; The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n,

265 The poor

contents him with the care of Heav'n.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;
The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bleft, the poet in his Muse.

270
See fome strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend:
See some fit paffior ev'ry age fupply,
Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, 275 Pleas’d with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite : Scarfs, garters, gold, anuse his riper ftage, And beads and pray’r-books are the toys of age :

280 Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before; 'Till tir'd he fleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er. Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays Those painted clouds that beautify our days;

C 2

Each want of happiness by Hope supply'd, 285
And each vacuity of sense by Pride :
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy ;
In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, joy ;
One prospect loft, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;

290 Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine, The scale to measure others wants by thine. See ! and confess, one comfort still must rise ; 'Tis this, Tho' Man's a fool, yet God is WISE.

HE

ERE then we rest : “ The Universal Cause

" Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."
In all the madness of fuperfluous health,
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day;
But most be present, if we preach or pray:

Look round our world; behold the chain of Love
Combining all below and all above.
See plastic Nature working to this end,
The single atoms each to other tend,
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form’d and impell’d its neighbour to embrace.
See Matter riext, with various life endu’d,
Prefs to one center ftill, the gen’ral Good.
See dying vegetables life fustain,
See life diffolving vegetate again :
All forms that perith other forms fupply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath and die)
Like bubbles on the sea of Matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; Parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving Soul

15

20

Connects each being, greatest with the least ;
Made Beast in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft;
All serv'd, all serving: Nothing ftands alone; 25
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.

Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn::

30
Is it for thee the lark afcends and lings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own and rapture fwell the note.
The bounding fteed you pompously bestride, 35
Shares with his lord the pleafure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that strews the plain?
The birds of Heav'n shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the delerving steer:
The hog, that plows not nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this Lord of all.

Know, Nature's children all divide her care ; The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. While Man exclaims, “ See all things for my use !” 45 “ See Mán for mine !" replies a pamper'd goofe : And just as short of Reafon He must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.

Grant that the pow'rful still the weak controul; Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole':

50 Nature that Tyrant checks; He only knows, And helps, another creature's wants and woes. Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the infect's gilded wings?

55 Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings? Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woodsy, To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods : For some his intrest prompts him to provide, For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride' : 60 All feed on one vain Patron, and enjoy Th'extenfive blefling of his luxury.

C 3

That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage faves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast,

65
And, 'till he ends the being, makes it bleft;
Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd Man by touch etherial slain.
The creatúre had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er ! 70

To each unthinking being, Heav'n a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end :
To Man imparts it; but with such a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too;
The hour conceal’d, and so remote the fear,

75
Death ftill draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle ! that Heav'n aflign’d
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with Reason, or with Instinct blest, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them beit; 80. To bliss alike by that direction tend, And find the means proportion'd to their end. Say, where full Instinct is th' unerring guide, What Pope or Council can they need belide ? Reason, however able, cool at best, 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'er-shoot, but just to hit ; While still too wide or short is human Wit; Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain, Which heavier Reason labours at in vain. This too serves always, Reason never long; One must go right, the other may go wrong.. See then the acting and comparing pow'rs

95 One in their nature, which are two in ours; And Reason raise o'er Instinct 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 chuse their food? 100 Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withstand, Build on the wave, or arcb beneath the sand ?

85

90

1.20

Who made the fpider parallels design,
Sure as Demoivre, without rule or line ?
Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown.before?
Who calls the council, states the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds : 1 fo
But as he framed a Whole, the Whole to bless,
On mutual Wants built mutual Happiness :
So from the firit, eternal Order ran,
And creature link'd to creature, man to inan.
Whate'er of life all quick’ning æther keeps, IS
Or breaths thro' air, or shoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds
The vital fame, and swells 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 sex desires alike, 'till two are one..
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, 125
The mothers nurse it, and the fires defend;
The
young

dismiss'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the Instinct, and there ends the care:
The link disfalves, 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 :
Reflection, Reason, still the ties improve,
At once extend the int'rest, and the love;
With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn; 135
Each yirtue in each passion takes its turn;
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise,
That graft benevolence on charities.,
Still as one brood, and as another, rose,
These nat'ral love maintain'd, habitual those : 140
The last, scarce ripen’d into perfect Man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began :