Page:An Essay on Man - Pope (1751).pdf/45

 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! 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, 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,