Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid;

Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the shade; The same his table, and the same his bed;

No murder cloath'd him, and no murder fed.

In the same temple---the resounding wood---
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God :

The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood 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 species, and betrays his own.
But just disease to luxury succeeds,

And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds;

The fury-passions from that blood began,

And turn'd on man a fiercer savage---man. T

Το

See him from nature rising slow to art!--

copy instinct then was reason's part;

Thus then to man the voice of Nature spake---` "Go, from the creatures thy instruction take: "Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield; "Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;

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Thy arts of building from the bee receive;

"Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. "Here too all forms of social union find,

i

"And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind:

"Here subterranean works and cities see;

"There towns aerial on the waying tree,

"Learn each small people's genius, policies,

"The ant's republic, and the realm of bees:

"How those in common all their wealth bestow, "And anarchy without confusion know;

"And these for ever, tho' a monarch reign, "Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state; "Laws wise as nature, and as fix'd as fate.

"In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw,

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Entangle justice in her net of law,

"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong, "Yet go, and thus o'er all the creatures sway, "Thus let the wiser make the rest obey; "And for those arts mere instinct could afford,

"Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd."

5. Great Nature spoke; observant man obey'd;

Cities were built, societies were made :

Here rose one little state; another near

Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear. Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, And there the streams in purer rills descend? What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.

Converse and love mankind might strongly draw, When love was liberty, and nature law.

Thus states were form'd; the name of king un

known;

Till common int'rest plac'd the sway

in one.

'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms, Diffusing blessings, or averting harms)

The same which in a sire the sons obey'd,

A prince the father of a people made.

6. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch

sate,

King, priest, and parent of his growing state;
On him, their second providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wand'ring furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood,
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground.

Till drooping, sick'ning, dying, they began,
Whom they rever'd as God, to mourn as man:
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explor'd

One

great First Father, and that First ador'd.

I