An Essay on Man

...
Look round our world; behold the chain of love
Combining all below and all above
See plastic Nature working to this end,
the single atoms each to another tend,
attract, attracted to, the next in place
formed and impelled its neighbour to embrace.

See matter next, with various life endued,
press to one centre still, the general good.
See dying vegetables life sustain,
see life dissolving vegetate again:
All forms that perish other forms supply
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die),
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
they rise, they break, and to that sea return.

Nothing is foreign: parts relate to whole;
one all-extending, all-preserving soul
connects each being, greatest with least.
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
all served, all serving: nothing stands alone;
the chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
...

(Alexander Pope)