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,
8aw 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' ethereal 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,
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 iuto 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,
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, nor 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
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.
On Happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, Pleasure, Ease,Content! whate'er thy name;
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies;
Ŏ'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool, and wise.
Plant of celestial seed! if dropt below,
Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair op'ning to some courts propitious shine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?
Where grows?-where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:
Fix'd to no spot is Happiness sincere;
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where ;
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And, fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with
Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind;
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these;
Some sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some swell'd to gods, confess ev'n Virtue vain;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, say they more or less
Than this, that Happiness is Happiness?
Take Nature's path, and mad opinions leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is Common Sense, and Common Ease. Remember, Man, « the Universal Cause Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws! » And makes what happiness we justly call, Subsist not in the good of one, but all. There's not a blessing individuals find, But some way leans and hearkens to the kind: No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd Hermit, rests self-satisfy'd: Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend:
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasures sicken and all glories sink:
Each has his share; and who would more obtain,
Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is Heaven's first law, and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess
If all are equal in their Happiness :
But mutual wants this Happiness increase;
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king;
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heav'n breathes thro' every member of the whole
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But Fortune's gifts if each alike possest,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men Happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place Content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those ;
But Heav'n's just balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in Hope, and these in Fear;
Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse.
Oh sons of earth; attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know, all the good that individuals find
Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind,
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Compe◄
Know thou this truth (enough for man to know)
«< Virtue alone is happiness below.
The only point where human bliss stands still
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only Merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequall'd if it's end it gain,
And if it lose, attended with no pain:
Without satiety, tho' e'er so bless'd,
And but more relish'd
the more
as
distress'd;
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than Virtue's very tears:
Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd,
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;
Never elated, while one man's oppres'd;
Never dejected while another's bless'd;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more Virtue, is to gain.
See the sole bliss Heav'n could on all bestow! Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must miss; the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks thro' Nature, up to Nature's God:
Pursues that Chain which links th' immense design,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no Being any bliss can know "
But touches some above, and some below;
Learns, from this union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where Faith, Law, Morals, all began,
All end, in Love of God, and Love of Man.
For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens still, and
his soul;
'Till lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd,
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