The bounding fteed you pompously beftride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that ftrews the plain?
The birds of heav'n fhall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Parts pays, and juftly, the deserving steer:
The hog, that plows not nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

35

40

44

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 ufe !" " See man 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.

VARIATIONS.

After 46. in the former Editions,

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 Goofe could judge, he reason'd right;
But as to Man, mistook the matter quite.

NOTES.

VER. 45.-See all things | faid, The Lord hath made for my ufe!] On the con- all things for HIMSELF. trary, the wife man hath | Prov. xvi, 4<

50

Grant that the pow'rful ftill the weak controul; Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole : Nature that Tyrant checks; He only knows, And helps another creature's wants and woes. Say, will the falcon, ftooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove? Admires the jay the infect's gilded 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,

55

For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:

60

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;

65

Nay, feafts the animal he dooms his feast,
And, 'till he ends the being, makes it bleft;

NOTES.

VER. 50. Be Man the Wit and Tyrant of the whole: Alluding to the witty fyftem of that Philofopher, which made Animals mere Machines, in

fenfible of pain or pleasure : and fo encouraged Men in the exercife of that Tyranny over their fellow-creatures, confequent on fuch a principle.

Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd Man by touch etherial flain.
The creature 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 fuch a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too :
The hour conceal'd, and fo 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.

75

II. Whether with Reafon, or with Inftinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them beft; To blifs 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 befide?
VARIATIONS.

After 84. in the MS.

While Man, with opening views of various ways
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge ftrays:
Too weak to chufe, yet chufing ftill in haste,
One moment gives the pleasure and distaste.

NOTES.

81

VER. 68. Than favour'd ancients, and many of the Man, &c.] Several of the Orientals fince, efteemed

Reason, however able, cool at best,

Cares not for fervice, or but serves when prest,
Stays 'till we call, and then not often near;
But honeft Inftinct comes a volunteer,

Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit ;
While still too wide or fhort is human Wit;
Sure by quick Nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier Reason labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reason 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 rife o'er Inftinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.

85

90

95

Who taught the nations of the field and wood To fhun their poison, and to chufe their food? 100 Prescient, the tides or tempefts to withstand, Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand? Who made the spider parallels design,

Sure as De-moivre, without rule or line?

Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore 105 Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?

NOTES.

thofe who were ftruck by lightning as facred perfons,

and the particular favourites of Heaven. P.

1

?

110

Who calls the council, ftates the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way
III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets 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 æther keeps, 115
Or breathes thro' air, or fhoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and fwells 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 fex defires 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,
The mothers nurfe it, and the fires defend;
The young difiifs'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the Inftinct, and there ends the care;
The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace,
Another love fucceeds, another race.

A longer care Man's helpless kind demands;

That longer care contracts more lasting bands:

120

126

130