COWPER.

* * * * *

LEARN FROM THE CREATURES.

    See him from Nature, rising slow to Art! 
    To copy Instinct, that 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 plough, 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 forever, though a monarch reign,
    Their sep’rate cells and properties maintain. 
    Mark what unvaryed laws preserve each state,
    Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate. 
    In fine, 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 crowned as Monarchs, or as God adored.”

POPE.

* * * * *

PAIN TO ANIMALS.

Granted that any practice causes more pain to animals than it gives pleasure to man; is that practice moral or immoral?  And if exactly in proportion as human beings raise their heads out of the slough of selfishness, they do not answer “immoral,” let the morality of the principle of utility be forever condemned.

JOHN STUART MILL.

* * * * *

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

    It might have been that the sky was green, and the grass serenely blue;
    It might have been that grapes on thorns and figs on thistles grew;
    It might have been that rainbows gleamed before the showers came;
    It might have been that lambs were fierce and bears and tigers tame;
    It might have been that cold would melt and summer heat would freeze;
    It might have been that ships at sea would sail against the breeze—­
    And there may be worlds unknown, dear, where we would find the change
    From all that we have seen or heard, to others just as strange—­
    But it never could be wise, dear, in haste to act or speak;
    It never could be noble to harm the poor and weak;
    It never could be kind, dear, to give a needless pain;
    It never could be honest, dear, to sin for greed or gain;
    And there could not be a world, dear, while God is true above,
    Where right and wrong were governed by any law but love.