Classic Poem

III 6

All Men throughout the peopled Earth
From one sublime Beginning spring;
All from one Source derive their Birth
The same their Parent and their King.

At his Command proud Titan glows,
And Luna lifts her Horn on high;
His hand this Earth on Man bestows
And strews with Stars the spangled Sky.

From her high Seats he drew the Soul,
And in this earthly Case confin'd;
To wondring Worlds produc'd the whole,
Essence Divine with Matter join'd.

Since then alike All Men derive
From God himself their noble Race,
Why should the witless Mortals strive
For vulgar Ancestry and Place?

Why boast their Birth before his Eyes,
Who holds no human Creature mean;
Save him whose Soul enslav'd to Vice
Deserts her nobler Origin.