No. LXIII. ON THE PRINCIPLE OF ASSOCIATION. Far, far away, whose passions would immure, His fair peculiar; wisdom, wit, and strength; Nor think, in Nature's state they blindly trod; DYER. POPE. IN my former paper I was engaged in the sublime contemplation of the chain of beings in the universe; in which an infinite variety of orders rise, From the mute shell-fish gasping on the shore, AKENSIDE. I will now descend to our world, that comparatively minute part of our creation, and inquire into the principle of Association, by which the sovereign Ruler of All has connected its innumerable inhabitants. Some learned men have contended, that the natural state of man is a state of solitude and war. Others maintain, on the contrary, that the state of man in society is his natural state; and to this opinion I am led to accede, by an attentive ob servation, not of man alone, but of many inferior orders of animated nature. Love, the first principle of the universe, and of all created beings, inspires them with a natural inclination to unite. The birds that fly in the air, the animals that inhabit the earth, the fishes that rove in the water, all live in a kind of society, which has laws proportionate to their nature and their wants. Beasts, birds, and the inhabitants of the floods, assemble at the approach of danger. Bees assist each other in their exigencies; and a cock, in a farm-yard, will defend the hen of his fellow-cock. In a word, we have only to observe the face of Nature, in order to be convinced, that all animals have an idea of property; an idea, which is the necessary and absolute consequence of selflove, of the desire of preservation, and of happiness, which is natural to every being. God, in the nature of each being, founds And creature linked to creature, man to man. The POPE. To return to man, let us consider him as in a state of perfect solitude. Will not the first question be, how came he there? Is not his very existence à proof of a previous society? But let us consider him again as perfectly unconnected, if it be possible, and without any regard to his origin: will he not constantly feel a natural impulse to propagate his spe cies? Will he not incessantly seek a companion to satisfy that desire? And if he find one, is not this the commencement of society? From this first state of society a third human being is produced, who comes into the world destitute of the least ability to provide for his wants. At the very instant of his birth, he would perish, if Nature had not given his parents a love toward him, an inclination to nourish and support him. The Author of Nature has given milk to his mother for his sustenance, and strength to the father, to protect the mother and the child, and to provide them with subsistence. These are evident proofs of the natural and absolute necessity of society. But from the same father and mother are born several children; and these form a family. These children render to their parents, in their old age, what they received from them in their infancy: they protect them from injuries, and supply them with necessaries, when their strength decays, and they are no longer able to provide for themselves. Is this innate love, this attachment, or this instinct, which men and brutes have for the beings to which they have given existence, a circumstance of no consideration ? Even the smallest of the feathered tribes have been known to pursue through the air those birds that have robbed them of their young, and to endeavour, at the hazard of their own lives, by incessant efforts and lamentations, to regain them. These very birds remain unconcerned, or hide themselves in their nests, when the bird of prey passes by with other young ones of the same tribe in his talons. Objects of this kind are common in the country; and they prove, beyond dispute, that property is a natural and inseparable attribute of the existence of every being. The mother, in this instance, seems to cry out, It is my child. And is man formed differently? Is he alone born without love, and without interest? A longer care man's helpless kind demands ; Still as one brood, and as another rose, These natural love maintained, habitual those : POPE. The first natural condition of mankind is unquestionably the union of a male and female. These produce a family, who, from necessity, or, in other words, from parental and filial affection, continue together, and assist each other in procuring food and shelter. This family, like most families in established civil societies, feel their own weakness, and their inability to supply their wants without more powerful resources than their own feeble exertions. When this wandering and defenceless family accidentally meet with another family in the same condition, Nature teaches them to unite for mutual support and protection. The association of two families may be considered as the first formation of a tribe or nation. When a number of tribes happen to unite, they only become a larger or more numerous nation. A single pair, it is true, if placed in a situation where plenty of food could be procured without much labour, might, in a succession of ages, produce any indefinite number; and this is precisely the situation in which Moses, in his history of the creation, has placed our first parents. In his account of the origin of society, it may be observed, moreover, that the longevity of men, in the first ages of the world, was highly favourable to a speedy population. In countries thinly peopled with savages, it is extremely probable that societies are formed by the gradual union of families and tribes. The increase of power resulting from mutual assistance, and a thousand other comfortable circumstances, soon contribute to cement more firmly the associated members. Some of the arts of life, beside that of hunting, are occasionally discovered, either by accident, by the ingenuity of individuals, or even from an observation of the labours of the inferior animals in the creation. See Man from Nature rising slow to Art! Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind: |