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النشر الإلكتروني

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See, dying Vegetables Life endu'd,
See, Life diffolving vegetate again.
All Forms that perish other Forms fupply,
By urns they catch the vital Breath, and die;
Like Bubbles on the Sea of Matter born,
They rife, they break, and to the Sea return.
Nothing is foreign; Parts relate to Whole:
One all-extending, all-preferving Soul
Connects each Being, greateft with the least ;
Made Beast in Aid of Man, and Man of Beast :
Each ferv'd and serving; nothing stands alone;
The Chain holds on, and where it ends unknown.
Has God, thou Fool! work'd folely for thy Good,
Thy Joy, thy Paftime, thy Attire, thy Food?
Who for thy Table feeds the wanton Fawn,
For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry Lawn.
It is for thee the Lark afcends and Sings;
sit Joy tunes his Voice, Joy elevates his Wings.

It is for Thee the Linnet pours his Throat ;.
Loves of his own, and Raptures fwell the Note.
The bounding Steed, you pompously beftride,
Shares with his Lord the Pleasure and the Pride.
Is thine alone the Seed that ftrows the Plain ?
The Birds of Heav'n fhall vindicate their Grain.
Thine the full Harveft of the golden Year?
Part pays, and juftly, the deferving Steer.
The Hog, that plows not, nor obeys thy Call,
Lives on the Labours of this Lord of All.

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Know, Nature's Children all divide her Care;
The Furr that warms a Monarch, warm'd a Bear.
While Man exclaims, fee all Things for my Ufe! 45
See Man for mine, replies a pamper'd Goose!
What Care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him?
All this he knew, but not that 'twas to eat him.

As far as Goose could judge, he reason'd right,

But as to Man, miftook the Matter quite :
And just as short of Reason, Man will 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.
NATURE that Tyrant checks; he only knows
And feels another Creature's Wants and Woes.

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Say,

Say, will the Faulcon, ftooping from above,
Smit with her varying Plumage, fpare the Dove?
Admires the Jay the Infect's glittering Wings,
Or hears the Hawk, when Philomela fings?
Man cares for all: To Birds he gives his Woods,
To Beafts his Paftures, and to Fish his Floods;
For fome, his Int'reft prompts him to provide,
For more, his Pleasure; yet for more, his Pride:
All feed on one vain Patron, and enjoy
Th' extenfive Bleffing of his Luxury.

That very Life his learned Hunger craves,
He faves from Famine, from the Savage faves:
Nay, feafts the Animal, he dooms his Feast,
And till he ends the Being, makes it blefs'd.
The favour'd Man, by Touch Ætherial flain,
Not lefs forefees the Stroke, or feels the Pain.
The Creature had his Feaft of Life before;
Thou too muft perish, when thy Life is o'er.

To each unthinking Being Heav'n, a Friend,
Gives not the useless Knowledge of its End;
To Man imparts it; but with fuch a View,
As while he dreads it, makes him hope it too.
The Hour conceal'd, and to remote the Fear,
Death ftill draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great ftanding Miracle! that Heav'n affign'd
Its only thinking Thing, this Turn of Mind.

Whether with Reafon, or with Inftinct bleft,
Know, all enjoy that Power which fuits them beft.
To Blifs, alike, by that Direction tend,
And find the Means proportion'd to their End.
Say, where full Inftinct 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 serves when prefs'd; 90
Stays 'till we call, and then not often near;
But honeft Inftinct comes a Volunteer.
This too ferves always, Reafon never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing Pow'rs
One in their Nature, which are two in ours;
And Reason raise o'er Inftinct, as you can;
In this, 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.

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Who

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Who taught the Nations of the Field and Wood, To fhun their Poison, and to chuse their Food? Prefcient, the Tides or Tempefts to withstand, Build on the Wave, or arch beneath the Sand? Who made the Spider Parallels defign, Sure as De Moivre, without Rule or Line? Who bid the Stork, Columbus-like, explore 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? GOD, in the Nature of each Being, founds Its proper Blifs, and sets 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 Ether keeps, 115 Or breathes through Air, or shoots beneath the Deeps, Or pours profufe on Earth; one Nature feeds The vital Flame, and fwells the genial Seeds. Not Man alone, but all that roam the Wood, Or wing the Sky, or roll along the Flood, Each loves Itfelf, but not itself alone, Each Sex defires alike, till two are one: Nor ends the Pleasure with the fierce Embrace;

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All love themselves, a third Time in their Race.
The Beast, the Bird, their common Charge attend, 125
The Mothers Nurse it, and the Sires defend ;
The Young difmifs'd, to wander Earth or Air,
There ftops the Inftinct, and there ends the Care;

The Link diffolves, each seek a fresh Embrace,
Another Love fucceeds, another Race.

A longer Care Man's helpless Kind demands;
That longer Care contracts more lafting Bands:
Reflection, Reafon, ftill the Ties improve,
At once extend the Int'reft, and the Love:
With Choice we fix, with Sympathy we burn,
Each Virtue in each Paffion takes its Turn;
And still new Needs, new Helps, new Habits rise,
That graft Benevolence on Charities,

From private Sparkles raife the gen'ral Flame,
And bid Self-Love, and Social be the fame:

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No 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.

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Who firft taught Souls enflav'd, and Realms undone, 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 the Conqueft, Law; 245 Till Superftition taught the Tyrant Awe;

Then fnar'd the Tyranny, and lent it Aid,

And Gods of Conqu'rors, Slaves of Subjects made: She, midft the Light'ning's Blaze and Thunder's Sound, When rock'd the Mountains, and when groan'd the Ground,

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She taught the Weak to bend, the proud to pray
To Pow'r unfeen, and mightier far than they.
She, from the rending Earth, and bursting Skies,
Saw Gods defcend, and Fiends infernal rife:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest Abodes;
Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods :
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust,
Whofe Attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft:
Such as the Souls of Cowards might conceive,
And form'd like Tyrants, Tyrants would believe. 250
Zeal then, not Charity, became the Guide,
And Hell was built on Spite, and Heav'n on Pride;
Then facred feem'd th' Etherial Vault no more;
Altars grew Marble then, and reek'd with Gore:
Then first the Flamen tafted living Food;

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Next his grim Idol fmear'd with human Blood;
With Heav'ns own Thunders fhook the World below,
And play'd the God an Engine on his Foe.

So drives Self-Love, thro' Juft, and thro' Unjuft,
To One Man's Pow'r, Ambition, Lucre, Luft;
The fame Self-Love, in All, becomes the Cause
Of what restrains him, Government and Laws.
For what one likes, if others like as well,
What ferves one Will, when many Wills rebel?
How shall we keep what, fleeping or awake,
A Weaker may furprize, a Stronger take?
D

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His

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His Safety must his Liberty restrain
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into Virtue thus by Self-Defence,
Ev'n Kings learn'd Juftice and Benevolence :
Self-Love forfook the Path it firft purfu'd,
And found the private, in the public Good.

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"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-lumn'd her ancient Light, nor kindled new ; If not God's Image, yet his Shadow drew ; Taught Pow'rs due Ufe to People and to Kings, Taught, not to flack, nor ftrain its tender Strings; 290 The Lefs, and Greater, fet fo juftly true; That touching one, muft ftrike the other too, And jarring Int'refts of themselves create Th' according Mufic of a well-mix'd State.

Such is the WORLD's great Harmony, that fprings 295
From Union, Order, full Confent of Things!

Where Small and Great, where Weak and Mighty, made
To ferve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade,
More pow'rful each, as needful to the reft,

And in Proportion, as it bleffes, bleft;

Draw to one Point, and to one Centre bring
Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.
For Forms of Government let Fools conteft;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd, is best:

For Modes of Faith let graceless Zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe Life is in the right.
All must be falfe that thwart this One great End,
And all of God, that bless Mankind, or mend.

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Man, like the gen'rous Vine, fupported lives; The Strength he gains is from th' Embrace he gives. 310 On their own Axis as the Planets run,

Yet make at once their Circle round the Sun:

So two confiftent Motions a& the Soul,

And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.

Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral Frame, 315 And bade Self-Love and Social be the fame.

EPIS

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