120 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO in. 



And with instructive foresight still await 



On each vicissitude of insect-state? 430 



Wise to the present, nor to future blind, 



They link the reasoning reptile to mankind! 



Stoop, selfish Pride! survey thy kindred forms, 



Thy brother Emmets, and thy sister Worms! 



" Thy potent acts, VOLITION, still attend 

 The means of pleasure to secure the end; 



Thy potent acts, Volition, 1. 435. It was before observed, how much 

 the superior accuracy of our sense of touch contributes to increase 

 our knowledge; but it is the greater energy and activity of the power 

 of volition, that marks mankind, and has given them the empire of the 

 world. 



There is a criterion by which we may distinguish our voluntary 

 acts or thoughts from those that are excited by our sensations: 

 " The former are always employed about the means to acquire plea- 

 surable objects, or to avoid painful ones; while the latter are em- 

 ployed about the possession of those that are already in our power." 



The ideas and actions of brutes, like those of children, are ahnost 

 perpetually produced by their present pleasures or their present 

 pains; and they seldom busy themselves about the means of procuring 

 future bliss, or of avoiding future misery. 



Whilst the acquiring of languages, the making of tools, and the 

 labouring for money, which are all only the means of procuring plea- 

 sure ; and the praying to the Deity, as another means to procure 

 happiness, are characteristic of human nature. 



