Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ether[1315] keeps, 115 Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps, Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds. Not man alone, but all that roam the wood, Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120 Each loves itself, but not itself alone, Each sex desires alike, till two are one. Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace: They love themselves a third time in their race.[1316] Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125 The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend;[1317] The young dismissed to wander earth or air, There stops the instinct, and there ends the care:[1318] The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace, Another love succeeds, another race. 130 [Sidenote: How much farther society is carried by reason.] A longer care man's helpless kind demands; That longer care contracts more lasting bands:[1319] Reflection, reason, still the ties improve, At once extend the int'rest, and the love;[1320] With choice we fix,[1321] with sympathy we burn; 135 Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;[1322] And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise, That graft benevolence on charities.[1323] Still as one brood, and as another rose, These nat'ral love maintained, habitual those:[1324] 140 The last scarce ripened into perfect man, Saw helpless him from whom their life began:[1325] Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage, That pointed back to youth, this on to age; While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined, 145 Still spread the int'rest, and preserved the kind.[1326] [Sidenote: Of the state of nature that it was social.]