Ode II. on Society

That Power, who warm'd the human breast, Bade each man mingle with the rest, Nor pass the gloomy world alone; He gave each heart a wish to know And feel another's joy or woe, And tell some kindred soul his own.

Man's social wants wak'd him at first, And bade him plow his native dust, The city build, and sail the main; Hence forests fall before his toil, His plowshare brightens in the soil, And harvest waves upon the plain.

Hence sullen streams, whose gloomy floods Once roll'd along the desert woods, Now slowly move, and stop to gaze, While cities on their margins rise, Heaving their turrets to the skies, And hallow'd temples echo praise.

Hence Ocean views the swelling sails, And bids his tempests shrink to gales, While commerce passes his domain: Thus wealth rolls round from shore to shore, Nations are friends who fought before, And realms disjoin'd unite again.

Hence science rear'd her laurel'd brow, Refin'd the soul, and gave the glow Which sparkles in the eye of bliss; While all those worlds which thought surveys, Where reason toils, or fancy plays, Lie circled in the heart's embrace.

Such goods Society bestows, Thus swells our joys, softens our woes, And bids new arts and knowledge rise; Then hail, ye Philologian band, By these may your young fame expand, Till day shall cease to light the skies.