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And anfwer to the fpur, and own the bit;
Stretch their glad mouths to meet the feeder's hand,
Pleas'd with his weight, and proud of his command.
Again: the lonely Fox roams far abroad,

On fecret rapine bent, and midnight fraud;
Now hunts the cliff, now traverses the lawn;
And flies the hated neighbourhood of man;
While the kind Spaniel and the faithful Hound,
Likeft that Fox in fhape and fpecies found,
Refuses through these cliffs and lawns to roam:
Purfues the noted path, and covets home;
Does with kind joy domeftic faces meet;
Takes what the glutted child denies to eat;
And dying licks his long-lov'd mafter's feet.
By what immediate caufe they are inclin'd,
In many acts, 'tis hard I own, to find.
I fee in others, or I think I fee,

That ftrict their principles, and ours agree.
Evil like us they fhun, and covet good;
Abhor the poison, and receive the food.
Like us they love or hate; like us they know,
To joy the friend, or grapple with the foe.
With feeming thought their actions they intend,
And use the means proportion'd to the end.
Then vainly the philofopher avers,

That reafon guides our deed, and instinct theirs.
How can we justly different caufes frame,

When the effects entirely are the fame,
Instinct and reafon how can we divide?

"Fis the fool's ignorance, and the pedant's pride.

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With the fame folly fure, man vaunts his fway;

If the brute beaft refufes to obey.

For tell me, when the empty boaster's word ·
Proclaims himself the universal lord;

Does he not tremble, left the Lion's paw
Should join his plea against the fancy'd law?
Would not the learned coward leave the chair;
If in the schools or porches fhould appear
The fierce Hyæna, or the foaming Bear?

The combatant too late the field declines,
When now the fword is girded to his loins.
When the swift veffel flies before the wind;
Too late the failor views the land behind.
And 'tis too late now back again to bring
Enquiry, rais'd and towering on the wing:
Forward fhe ftrives, averfe to be withheld
From nobler objects, and a larger field.
Confider with me thls ætherial space,
Yielding to earth and fea the middle place.

Anxious I ask ye, how the penfile ball

Should never ftrive to rise, nor never fear to fall.

When I reflect, how the revolving fun

Does round our globe his crooked journies run;

I doubt of many lands, if they contain

Or herd of beast, or colony of man:

If any nations pass their destin'd days:
Beneath the neighb'ring fun's directer rays:
If any fuffer on the polar coaft,

The rage of Ar&tos, and eternal froft.

May

May not the pleasure of omnipotence
To each of these fome fecret good dispense?
Those who amidst the torrid regions live,
May they not gales unknown to us receive;
See daily fhowers rejoice the thirsty earth,
And bless the flowery buds' fucceeding birth?
May they not pity Us, condemn'd to bear
The various heaven of an obliquer sphere;
While by fix'd laws, and with a just return,
They feel twelve hours that fhade, for twelve that burn,
And praise the neighb'ring fun, whofe conftant flame
Enlightens them with feafons ftill the fame?

And may
not thofe, whofe diftant lot is caft
North beyond Tartary's extended waste;
Where through the plains of one continual day,
Six fhining months pursue their even way;
And fix fucceeding urge their dufky flight;
Obscur'd in vapours, and o'erwhelm'd in night=
May not, I ask the natives of these climes
(As annals may inform fucceeding times)
To our quotidian change of heaven prefer
Their own viciffitude, and equal share
Of day and night, difparted through the year?
May they not fcorn our fun's repeated race,
To narrow bounds prescrib'd, and little space,
Haftening from morn, and headlong driven from noon,
Half of our daily toil yet fcarcely done?
May they not justly to our climes upbraid
Shortness of night, and penury of fhade;

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That

That, e'er our wearied limbs are justly blest
With wholesome fleep, and necessary rest;
Another fun demands return of care,

The remnant toil of yesterday to bear?
Whilft, when the folar beams falute the fight,
Bold and fecure in half a year of light,
Uninterrupted voyages they take

To the remoteft wood, and farthest lake;
Manage the fishing, and purfue the course

With more extended nerves, and more continu'd force,
And when declining day forfakes their sky;
When gathering clouds fpeak gloomy winter nigh;
With plenty for the coming feafon bleft,
Six folid months (an age) they live, releas'd,
From all the labour, process, clamour, woe,
Which our fad fcenes of daily action know:
They light the fhining lamp, prepare the feast,
And with full mirth receive the welcome guest:
Or tell their tender loves (the only care
Which now they suffer) to the listening fair,
And rais'd in pleasure, or repos'd in ease
(Grateful alternates of substantial peace)
They blefs the long nocturnal influence shed
On the crown'd goblet, and the genial bed.

In foreign ifles which our difcoverers find,
Far from this length of continent disjoin'd,
The rugged Bears, or fpotted Lynx's brood
Frighten the vallies, and infeft the wood;
The hungry Crocodile, and hiffing Snake
Lurk in the troubled ftream and fenny brake:

And

And man, untaught and ravenous as the beast,
Does valley, wood, and brake, and ftream infeft.
Deriv'd thefe men and animals their birth
From trunk of oak, or pregnant womb of earth?
Whence then the old belief that all began
In Eden's fhade, and one created man?
Or, grant, this progeny was wafted o'er
By coafting boats from next adjacent fhore:
Would thofe, from whom we will suppose they spring,
Slaughter to harmless lands, and poison bring?
Would they on board or Bears, or Lynxes take,
Feed the She-Adder, and the brooding Snake?
Or could they think the new discover'd isle,
Pleas'd to receive a pregnant Crocodile ?

And, fince the favage lineage we must trace
From Noah fav'd, and his distinguish'd race;
How fhould their fathers happen to forget
The arts which Noah taught, the rules he fet,
To fow the glebe, to plant the generous vine,
And load with grateful flames the holy fhrine?
While the great fire's unhappy fons are found,
Unprefs'd their vintage, and untill'd their ground
Straggling o'er dale aad hill in queft of food,
And rude of arts, of virtue, and of God.
How shall we next o'er earth and seas pursue
The varied forms of every thing we view;
That all is chang'd, though all is still the same,
Fluid the parts, yet durable the frame?
Of those materials which have been confefs'd
The priftine fprings, and parents of the reft,

Each

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