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 goose :
And just as short of reafon he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.

He then proceeds to fhew, that reafon or inftinct operates alike to the good of each individual, and enforces fociety in all animals. He confiders how far fociety is carried by inftinct, and how much farther by reafon; he beautifully defcribes the state of nature, and fhews how reason was inftructed by instinct in the invention of arts, and in the forms of fociety.

Thus then to man the voice of nature speak-
Go, from the creatures thy inftruction take :
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
Learn from the beaft the phyfic of the field;
The arts of building from the bee receive;
Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave;
Learn of the little nautilus to fail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
Here too all forms of focial union find,
And hence let reafon, late inftruct mankind;
Here fubterranean works and cities fee;
There towns aereal on the waving tree:
Learn each small people's genius, policies,
The ant's republic, and the realm of bees;
How thofe in common all their wealth beftow,
And anarchy without confufion know;
And these for ever, tho' a monarch reign,
Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain.
Mark what unvary'd laws preferve each state,
Laws wife as Nature, and as fixt as Fate.
In vain thy reason finer webs fhall draw,
Entangle Juftice in her net of Law,
And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;
Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too strong.
Yet, go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway,
Thus let the wifer make the rest obey;
And for thofe arts mere inftin& could afford,
Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd.'

He thence traces out the origin of political focieties; of monarchy, and patriarchal governments, and fhews that true religion and government had both their foundation in the principle of love, and that fuperftition and tyranny arofe from the principle of fear. He confiders the influence of felf-love, as operating to the focial and public good; treats of the restoration of true religion and government on their first principles; then defcants on mix'd governments and their various forms; and laftly, points out the true end of all, in the following admirable lines.

For forms of government let fools conteft;
Whate'er is best adminifter'd is beft:
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right
In faith and hope the world will difagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity:

All must be falfe that thwart this one great end,
And all of God, that blefs mankind or mend.

Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives; The ftrength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. On their own axis as the planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the fun;
So two confiftent motions act the foul;
And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.
Thus God and nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade felf-love and focial be the fame.

In his fourth epiftle he treats of the nature and state of man with respect to happinefs, explodes all falfe notions of happinefs, philofophical and popular, and affirms that it is the end of all men, and attainable by all, for God intends happiness to be equal; and to be fo, it must be focial, fince all particular happiness depends on general, and fince he governs by general, not particular laws.

Take Nature's path, and mad opinions leave,
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extream they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common fenfe, and common ease.

Remember, man, the univerfal caufe Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;'

And makes what happiness we juftly call
Subfifts not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a blessing individuals find,
But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind.
Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain,
Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.

He obferves that as it is neceffary for order, and the peace and welfare of fociety, that external goods fhould be unequal, happiness is not made to confift in thefe: for not withstanding that in inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two paffions of hope and fear.

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 thofe ;
But Heav'ns juft balance equal will appear,
While thofe 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 worfe.

He tells us what the happiness of individuals is, as far as is confiftent with the constitution of this world; and here it appears that the good man has evidently the advantage.

Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind;
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of fenfe,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.
But health confifts with temperance alone,
And peace, oh virtue! peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain,
But thefe lefs tafte them, as they worse obtain.

After this he points out the error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, and alfo the folly of expecting that God fhould alter his general laws in favour of particulars. He proves that we are unable to judge who are good, but concludes that whoever they are they must be happy. He obferves that

external goods are fo far from being the proper rewards of virtue, that they are very often inconfiftent with, and deftructive to it.

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is virtue's prize: a better would you fix ?
Then give humility a coach and fix,

Juftice a conqueror's fword, or truth a gown,
Or public fpirit, its great care, a crown.
Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward us there
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here ?
The boy and man an individual makes,
Yet figh'ft thou now for apples and for cakes ?
-Go, like the Indian, in another life
Expect thy dog, thy bottle and thy wife;
As well as dream fuch are affign'd,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind.
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring
No joy, or be deftructive of the thing:
How oft by thefe at fixty are undone
The virtues of a faint at twenty-one?

To prove that these can make no man happy without virtue, he has confidered the effect of riches, honours, nobility, greatnefs, fame, fuperior talents, &c. and given pictures of human infelicity in men poffefs'd of them all; whence he concludes, that virtue only conftitutes happinefs, whose object is univerfal, and whofe profpect eternal; and that the perfection of virtue and happiness confifts in a due conformity to the order of providence here, and a refignation to it here and hereafter.

We have dwelt long enough, perhaps too long, on this poem; but it was neceffary to give the whole scope and defign of the poet; that the reader might fee what art was required to make a subject so diy and metaphyfical, inftructive and pleafing: and that it is fo will appear by the extracts we have taken, which we hope will induce our readers to perufe attentively the poem itself. From the nature of his plan, the reader will fee that the poet was deprived of many embellishments which other fubjects will admit of, and tied down as it were to a chain of I

argument, which would allow of no digreffions, ftudied fimiles and descriptions, or allufions to ancient fables; the want of which he has fupplied, however, with feafonable remarks, and moral reflections; all of them juft, and many of them truly fublime.

A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honeft man's the nobleft work of God.
Honour and fhame from no condition rife;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

The learned editor of the author's works informs us that this poem is only a part of what the poet intended on the subject, and that the whole would have made four books, of which this was to have been the first; but the author's bad flate of health, and some other confiderations induced him to lay the plan afide: a remnant, however, of what he intended as a fubfequent part of this was published under the title of Moral Epifles, which are in number four. The firft treats of the knowledge and characters of men; the fecond, of the characters of women; and the two laft, of the use of riches; and from the masterly manner in which these are executed the world has great reafon to lament the lofs of the reft.

We come now to speak of those preceptive poems that concern our philofophical fpeculations; and thefe, tho' the fubject is fo pregnant with matter, affords fuch a field for fancy, and is fo capable of every decoration, are but few. Lucretius is the most confiderable among the ancients who has written in this manner; and among the moderns I know of none but small detached pieces, except the poem called Anti-Lucretius, which, has not yet received an English drefs, and Dr. Akenfide's Pleasures of the Imagination; both which are worthy of our admiration. Some of the fmall pieces are alfo well executed and there is one entitled the Universe, written by Mr. Baker, from which I fhall borrow an example.

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The author's fcheme is in fome measure coincident with Mr. Pope's, fo far efpecially as it tends to restrain the pride of man, with which defign it was profeffedly written. It may be objected, perhaps, that this poem is rot preceptive, and therefore not fuitable to our purpofe;