Whether with Reason, or with Instinct blest,33

Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best;

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 beside?

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

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 shun their poison, and to chuse their food?

Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand,

Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand?

Who made the spider parallels design,

Sure as De-moivre, without rule or line?34

Who bid 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?

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds

Its 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.

Whate'er of life all-quick'ning æther keeps,35

Or breathes thro' air, or shoots beneath the deeps,

Or pours profuse on earth; one nature feeds

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;

They love themselves, a third time, in their race.

Thus beast and bird their common charge attend,

The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend;

The young dismiss'd to wander earth or air,

There stops the Instinct, and there ends the care;

The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace,

Another love succeeds, another race.

A longer care Man's helpless kind demands;36

That longer care contracts more lasting bands:

Reflection, Reason, still the ties improve,

At once extend the in'trest, 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:

The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect Man,

Saw helpless him from whom their life began:

Mem'ry and fore-cast just returns engage,

That pointed back to youth, this on to age;

While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd,

Still spread the int'rest, and preserv'd the kind.

IV. Nor think, in NATURE'S STATE they blindly trod;37

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.

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.

See him from Nature rising slow to Art!38

To copy Instinct then was Reason's part;

Thus then to Man the voice of Nature spake –

»Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take:

Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;

Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;

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,39

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

Here too all forms of social union find,

And hence let Reason, late, instruct Mankind:

Here subterranean works and cities see;

There towns aerial on the waving 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,

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.«

V. Great Nature spoke; observant Men obey'd;40

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 unknown,

'Till common int'rest plac'd the sway in one.41

'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.

VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch sate,42

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 wond'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.

Or plain tradition that this All begun,

Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son,

The worker from the work distinct was known,

And simple Reason never sought but one:

E'er Wit oblique had broke that steddy light.

Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right,

To Virtue, in the paths of Pleasure, trod,

And own'd a Father when he own'd a God.

LOVE all the faith, and all th'allegiance then;43

For Nature knew no right divine in Men,

No ill could fear in God; and understood

A sov'reign being but a sov'reign good.

True faith, true policy, united ran,

That was but love of God, and this of Man.

Who first taught souls enslav'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 Cause?

Force first made Conquest, and that conquest, Law;

'Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe,

Then shar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,

And Gods of Conqu'rors, Slaves of Subjects made:

She, 'midst the light'ning's blaze, and thunder's sound,

When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,

To Pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they:

She, from the rending earth and bursting skies,

Saw Gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:

Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes;

Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;

Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,

Whose attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Lust;

Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,

And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.

Zeal then, not charity, became the guide,

And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride.

Then sacred seem'd th'etherial vault no more;

Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:

Then first the Flamen tasted living food;

Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;

With Heav'n's own thunders shook the world below,

And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

So drives Self-love, thro' just and thro' unjust,44

To one Man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust:

The same Self-love, in all, becomes the cause

Of what restrains him, Government and Laws.

For, what one likes if others like as well,

What serves one will, when many wills rebel?

How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake,

A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?

His safety must his liberty restrain:

All join to guard what each desires to gain.

Forc'd into virtue thus by Self-defence,

Ev'n Kings learn'd justice and benevolence:

Self-love forsook the path it first pursu'd,

And found the private in the public good.

'Twas then, the studious head or gen'rous mind,45

Follow'r of God or friend of human-kind,

Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore

The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before;

Re-lum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;

If not God's image, yet his shadow drew:

Taught Pow'r's due use to People and to Kings,

Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings,

The less, or greater, set so justly true,

That touching one must strike the other too;

'Till jarring int'rests of themselves create

Th'according music of a well-mix'd State.

Such is the World's great harmony, that springs

From Order, Union, full Consent of things!

Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made

To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade,

More pow'rful each as needful to the rest,

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest,

Draw to one point, and to one centre bring

Beast, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.

For Forms of Government let fools contest;

Whate'er is best administer'd is best:

For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight;

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right:

In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,

But all Mankind's concern is Charity:

All must be false that thwart this One great End,

And all of God, that bless Mankind or mend.

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;

The strength he gains is from th'embrace he gives.

On their own Axis as the Planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the Sun:

So two consistent motions act the Soul;

And one regards Itself, and one the Whole.

Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,

And bade Self-love and Social be the same.

 

Epistle IV

Argument

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Happiness.

 

I. False Notions of Happiness, Philosophical and Popular, answered from v. 19 to 76. II. It is the End of all Men, and attainable by all, v. 29. God intends Happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be social, since all particular Happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular Laws, v. 35. As it is necessary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal, Happiness is not made to consist in these, v. 49. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of Happiness among Mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two Passions of Hope and Fear, v. 67. III. What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good Man has here the advantage, v. 77. The error of imputing to Virtue what are only the calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, v. 93. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general Laws in favour of particulars, v. 111. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they must be happiest, v. 131, etc. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of Virtue, v. 167.