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, Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. Great standing miracle! that heav'n assign'd Its only thinking thing this turn of mind. 2. Whether with reason or with instinct. blest, Know, all enjoy the pow'r which suits them best; To bliss alike by that direction tend, And find the means proportion'd to their end. 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;' Who taught the nations of the field and wood To shun their poison, and to chuse their food? Prescient the tides or tempests to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand? H f Who made the spider parallels design, Sure as Demoivre, without rule or line? Who bids the stork, Columbus-like, explore 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? Its 3. God, in the nature of each being, founds proper bliss, 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 first, eternal Order ran, And creature link'd to creature, man to man.' The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. 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; A longer care man's helpless kind demands; At once extend the int'rest, and the love; With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn'; Each virtue 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: 4. 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, |