Should have to mourn abortive energies...
But in proportion as Mankind increase,
So evils multiply: till Nature's self,
(The native passions of the human mind)
Engender War; which thins, and segregates,
And rectifies the balance of the world:
As thick-sown plants in the vegetable world,
With stretching branches wage continual War;
Each tender bud shrinks from the foreign touch
With a degree of sensitive perception;
Till one deforms, o'er-tops, and kills the other.
Like Summer swarms, that quit their native hives,
The offspring of increasing families,
Who find no room beneath their father's roofs,
No patrimony nor employ at home,
Colleagu'd in bands explore the desart wilds,
To seek adventures; or to seek their food:
If chance they meet with rovers (like themselves)
Whose home is far away in distant vales,
Behind the mountains, or beyond the lake;
Instinctively they war where'er they meet:
The friendly parley cannot intervene;
The unknown tongue does but create alarm:
With jealous fears, stern looks, and brandish'd arms,
They stand aloof: as birds of distant groves
At the strange note prepare for instant War.
At first they skirmishing dispute the right
Of hunting in the unappropriate waste:
But every onset aggravates their hate;
Till each increasing force, whetting their swords,