i M-    rrs
WJP-I) CID
I r




I.    IM —.. - 1   
or-M=77 —                               I    - - 9.. 9-P-Mccm, -                               13%


I
19




I   -.                                                                  -                  --




A


'4




4..f




A




I




POPE'S ESSAY ON MAN




(C'




POPE


ESSAY


ON MAN


EPISTLES      I.-IV.
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BY
E. E. MORRIS, M.A.
PROFFSSOR OF ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND GERMAN LANGUAGES AND
LITERATURES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Aonbon
MACMILLAN         AND    CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1899
All rights reserved




First Edition 1895.
Reprinted May and November 1898,
March and August 1899.
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO.




CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTIONI. Author's Life,...      vii
II. Pope's Poetry,......       xi
III. The "Essay on Man,"..... xvii
IV. Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke,.. xxiii
V. Language and Pronunciation, as shown by
Rhymes,......xxvii
AN ESSAY ON MANThe Design,.......    1
Epistle  I.,.........    3
Epistle  II.,........   13
Epistle  III.,.......   23
Epistle  IV.,........   34
NOTES,..........  47


IN DEX,




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




INTRODUCTION.


I. AUTHOR'S LIFE.
ALEXANDER POPE was born in London on May 21,
1688, the year of the Revolution that finally dismissed
the Stuarts from the English throne.  His father was a
linen merchant, whose place of business was in Lombard
Street in the city, a street more famous for its association
with banks than with poetry. In the poem in which
Pope gives us most autobiographical details, the Epistle
to Arbuthnot (also called the Prologue to the Satires), he
tells us that
"Of gentle blood (part shed in honour's cause,
While yet in Britain honour had applause)
Each parent sprung."
There is no reason to deny this statement because his
father was in trade, in spite of the illiberal way in which
trade was then viewed. Whilst the son was yet young,
the father, having made at least a competency for himself, retired from business, and bought a country house
at Binfield, not far from Windsor Forest. Both parents
vii




AN ESSAY ON MAN.


viii


were Roman Catholics, and the event of the year of
Pope's birth may be said to have proved fatal to the
cause of the Roman Catholics in England. As a Catholic
Pope could not go to one of the public schools, and he
never received the drilling in the classical languages that
he might have obtained there.   It is said that Pope
taught himself to write by copying print, and throughout
his life his small fine hand-writing bore traces of its
origin. Pope received his early education from a priest,
to whom his father had given an asylum, and who repaid
the kindness by teaching the little boy the rudiments of
Latin and Greek. The young Pope was afterwards sent
in turn to two small Catholic schools; but as Catholic
schools they were not likely to be flourishing, and they
seem to have been very bad. It is said that he left his
first school for fleshing his youthful satire on the master,
and, if the story be true, it is a characteristic beginning.
His school-days were over by the time that he was
twelve, from which early age the poet carried on his
own education.   He says that he took to reading by
himself "with very great eagerness and enthusiasm,
especially for poetry. In a few years I had dipped into
a very great number of the English, French, Italian,
Latin, and Greek poets." This would be a capital training for a poet, but, unfortunately, the statement must be
qualified. Voltaire, who personally knew Pope, declared
that he could hardly speak or read a word of French:
but the latter statement must surely be exaggerated.
Pope's knowledge of Italian also was limited, and not like
>'that of Milton. He certainly was never a scholar in
the strict sense of the word, but he could translate
-the classical authors in a way to gather their sense




INTRODUCTION.


ix


without paying much attention to the refinements or
niceties of their language.
A sickly child, Pope grew up deformed, and so short
as to be almost a dwarf. Throughout his whole life he
suffered a great deal from illness, especially severe headaches. An undercurrent of unhappiness caused by his->
bodily ailments, and a nervous irritability, which is not
uncommon with very short men, can be traced through
all his life. Unable to engage in the sports of boyhood,
he showed poetical talent at a very early age.
" Why did I write? What sin to me unknown,
Dipt me in my ink,-my parents', or my own?
As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame,
I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."
In the poetical phraseology of the time, the word " numbers" was used for poetry in imitation of the Latin
numeri.
" I left no calling for this idle trade,
No duty broke, no father disobey'd.
The muse but serv'd to ease some friend, not wife,
To help me through this long disease, my life."
This last pathetic statement should always be borne in
mind by all who deal with the biography of Pope.
Poets have been described as a "genus irritabile," but
Pope had physical reasons for his irritability. Asthma,
in itself partly a disease of the nerves, was one form of
his illness; ultimately dropsy was superadded.
Pope never married.    After his father's death, his
mother living with him, he took up his residence at a
villa, which he purchased at Twickenham, a place on the
Thames, about twenty miles above London, if the wind



X


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


ings of the river be followed, and a shorter distance by a
straight road.  This villa at "Twitnam," as Pope preferred to call the place, was to the poet a constant
delight.  He took a keen interest in "the purest of all
human pleasures," gardening; and the quaint grotto
which he caused to be constructed underneath a high
road is still shown to a curious public. Here Pope was
visited by the most eminent men of the day, politicians
or men of letters.    He was proud to boast of his
friendly intercourse with Lord Bolingbroke-the St. John
to whom the Essay on Man is dedicated, as well as the
assistance that Peterborough, the brilliant but erratic
general, gave him in gardening.
"There my retreat the best companions grace,
Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place.
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl
The feast of reason and the flow of soul.
And he, whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines,
Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines,
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain,
Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain."
Probably no "statesman out of place" ever had nobler
eulogy passed upon him than that with which Pope
honoured Harley, Lord Oxford:
"A soul supreme in each hard instance tried,
Above all pain, all passion, and all pride,
The rage of power, the blast of public breath,
The lust of lucre, and the dread of death."
Pope was a good friend, but one of the most endearing
points about him was his strong affection for his mother.
[See iv. 110.] On her monument he called her mater




INTRODUCTION.


xi


optima, mulierumn amantissima.  With genuine feeling he
seems to have written these tender lines:
"Me let the tender office long engage
To rock the cradle of reposing age,
With lenient arts extend a mother's breath,
Make languor smile, and soothe the bed of death,
Explore the thought, explain the asking eye,
And keep awhile one parent from the sky."
After his mother's death he seems to have been more
and more miserable as his diseases increased upon him,
until he died on May 30, 1744, an eminent man of letters
but never a happy man. He was then fifty-six.
II. POPE'S POETRY.
In the last year of the seventeenth century, Pope, aged
twelve years old, was, at his own express desire, taken
up to London in order to see Dryden, the reigning poet,
for whom, as a convert to the Roman Catholic religion,
Pope's family had naturally a special affection.  It was
at Will's Coffee-house that the meeting took place, and
it is to be hoped that Dryden appreciated the boy's
enthusiasm. Dryden died in that very year; and it may
well be said that his mantle and a double portion of his
spirit fell upon Pope, who did not wait long before
entering upon his poetical inheritance.  The following
are Pope's most famous works, given in the order in
which they were composed and published: Essay on
Criticism, Rape of the Lock, The Messiah, Translation of
Homer's Iliad, Translation of part of Homer's Odyssey, The
Dunciadl, Essay on Man, Imitations of Horace.




Xii


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


The Essay on Criticism may be described as written in
imitation of the Ars Poetica of Horace, but there is this
difference between the writers-Horace was an experienced and practised poet, Pope a young man of twentythree when his poem was published. If the palm for
originality be awarded to Horace, honour must also be
given to the genius of the young poet, which enabled
him to utter thoughts worthy of the matured wisdom of
age. Many of the commonest quotations of modern life
are cujled from the Essay on Criticism.
"/A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
' To err, is human; to forgive, divine."
Perhaps the most extraordinary feature about Pope's
early poetry is that it is as good, or almost as good, as
that which he wrote when he was much older. There is
the same harmony in the metre, the same polish in
the language. It can hardly be maintained that added
years brought with them any marked increase of power,
of melody, or of taste.
The Rape of the Lock is a playful poem, mock heroic.
It has been called the true epic of the Age of Anne,
which was in many ways an artificial time. A young
cavalier of the court cut a lock of hair from off the head
of a beautiful maid of honour. The lady was naturally
incensed, and Pope wrote this poem with a view to restoring peace. The place that the gods occupy in ancient
epic poems, Pope supplies in this airy pleasantry with a
whole system of sylphs and gnomes, and the subject is
treated in so graceful a style that the poem may serve as
a model for this species of composition.  It is itself




INTRODUCTION.


xiii


partly an imitation of a poem by Boileau, called Le LAitrin,
"the lectern," but it is generally acknowledged that Pope's
is the better, if it be not the most charming poem of the
kind in any language.
The Mlessiah is a sacred eclogue written in imitation of
Virgil's Pollio, as the fourth of his eclogues is called.  It
has often interested critics to note the strange points of
resemblance between the Pollio and some of the prophecies
of Isaiah. Some writers even go so far as to say that
Virgil may have been acquainted with the prophetic
portions of the Bible in an indirect manner through Jews
who had settled in Rome.  In the Messiah-which is one
of the most beautiful of Pope's shorter poems, the language of Isaiah is intentionally grafted on the language
of Virgil, and thus a higher and Christian application
has been given to a poem written in honour of the
Consul Pollio's little boy.
On Pope's Homer-perhaps his best known, his longest,
but hardly his greatest work-his contemporary, Bentley,
the most eminent classical critic of his time, passed a
criticism to which even now it is difficult to add. "A
pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but please don't call it Homer."
It begins:
"Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of countless evils, heavenly goddess, sing."
The sonorous roll of the original hexameters, the natural
freedom of the early poet have vanished, and have been
replaced by the stiffness of an artificial style.  The
problem of translation is better understood now.  Pope
was not a finished Greek scholar, and thoroughly to
understand the work to be translated is the first need of




xiv


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


a translator.  But if Pope's translation does not reproduce Homer, it is well worth reading for its own sake.
It enjoyed an extraordinary popularity for the greater
part of a century, during which time many boys learnt
the story of the Fall of Troy from Pope, and when older
remembered with pleasure its polished couplets.  The
translation was published by subscription and brought
the poet a large sum of money, so that in an age of
patronage he was able to boast"Thanks to Homer, whilst I live and thrive,
Indebted to no prince or peer alive."
Pope's greatest admirers do not claim originality
amongst his merits.  A large portion of his poems is
made up of translations and imitations.   Perhaps it
would have been more suitable if Pope could have
changed places with Dryden, and employed his smooth
style as the translator of Virgil rather than of Homer.
But amongst ancient writers his affinity is with Horace.
In the careless cynicism of the Roman writer, as in the
epigrams and polish of hio verse, we may find a likeness to Pope, who, besides the imitation in the Essay
on Criticism, paraphrased several of the satires and
epistles and adapted them to the Age of the two first
Georges. There is much to remind us of Horace even
in the Dunciad, a biting satire upon the dull writers,
the Dunces of Pope's day. The poet attacks Dulness,
as represented by his own contemporaries, especially by
such as had offended him. Some parts of the Dunciad
are parodies; others are full of burning indignation.
This spirit of indignation only occasionally appears in
the Satires, the attack upon Lord Hervey under the




INTRODUCTION.


XV


name of " Sporus " being especially savage. Sometimes
the satire is more stinging by being wrapt in a studious
moderation, as in the attack on his former friend Addison,
veiled under the name of "Atticus."
The merits of Pope's poetry are not originality nor
sympathy with nature, virtues which distinguish greater
poets, but grace, smoothness, correctness, the perfection
of poetic taste.  Pope pays infinite attention to the
form of his verses, making the subject-matter a secondary
consideration.  His lines remind one of the exquisite
chiselling of a master-sculptor, and the result of this is
that, after Shakspere, he has contributed more quotations to our everyday language than perhaps any other
poet.  He belongs to an artificial school, which has
been called Classical and has been called French.    It
has certainly been greatly influenced by the Classics as
studied from a particular point of view, as well as by
the French writers of the Age of Louis XIV.        The
predominant element in Pope's poetry is due to the
conscious following of advice which he received from
a critic of eminence when he was young-" Be a correct
poet."   The confession made by Pope that he aimed
at carrying out this advice has naturally stimulated the
critics as a challenge to find instances where he is
incorrect.  Few poets have been more carped at: the
search for faults sometimes going so far as to object
to ellipses, and to require the same fulness of statement
in terse verse that can be expected in prose. The greatest
poets, however, aim at something far more important
than correctness, even if that be attainable: and it
must be allowed that Pope does not belong to the first
order of the world's poets, its eternal masters of har



xvi


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


monious song. But that order is not large, and neither
the world nor English Literature can afford to exclude
from the list of poets those who only belong to the
second order, those who return to an Age its own
thoughts melodiously expressed in verse.  Pope holds
the mirror up, not to nature, but to the society of a
particular epoch.' The greatest critic of our time, Mr.
Matthew Arnold, was inclined altogether to deny the
name of poet to Dryden and to Pope. Unable, however, to deny their power and their importance in
literature, he calls them the "high-priests of an age
of prose."  But as Poetry, like Wisdom, is justified
of all her children, it seems better not to refuse these
high-priests the time-honoured name of poet.
There is no doubt that Pope, from earliest years to
latest, reverenced Dryden and acknowledged him as his
master. Dr. Johnson compares Pope's prose to that of
Dryden in language which may be applied also to their
poems: "The style of Dryden is capricious and varied,
that of Pope is cautious and uniform; Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid, Pope is always smooth,
uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field,
rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied
exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet
lawn, shaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller."
Pope's influence upon English poetry may be said to
have lasted until nearly the end of the eighteenth
We are to regard Dryden as the puissant and glorious
founder, Pope as the splendid high-priest of our age of prose and
reason. For the purposes of their mission and destiny their
poetry, like their prose, is admirable. (Ward's English Poets,
Introduction, p. xxxviii.).




INTRODUCTION.


Xvii


*cntury, and it cannot be regarded as beneficial. Poetry
consists of two parts-the outward form and the inward
meaning. Some writers have neglected one and some
the other. The absence of heart and of nature from a
great deal of the poetry of the coming time seems to be
due to imitation of Pope; and those poets who did the
most to bring back simplicity and truth instead of artificiality, and to develop the love of nature, protested
against the influence of Pope. Cowper complains that
he
*' Made poetry a mere mechanic art,
And every warbler has his tune by heart."
Wordsworth said that in description Pope never had
his eye upon his subject.  In Sleep and Poetry Keats
attacks him as one of the handicraftsmen who wore
the mask of Poesy.
III. THE " ESSAY ON MAN."
The Essay on Man the author declares to have been
written as part of a much larger scheme, others of the
poems entitled Moral Essays being intended to be woven
into it, until the whole should be about four times its
present bulk.  The Essay on Mian was given to the
world in parts: the first epistle published at first
anonymously in 1732, and the last in 1734.     Pope
lived for ten years after the last date, and, therefore,
want of time could not be pleaded as his reason for
abandoning his design.
The summaries prefixed to each of the epistles are
by the author himself.  It may be worth while here to




xviii


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


extract from them a brief account of the matter of the
poems.   The subject of the first Epistle is man with
respect to the universe; of the second, with respect to
himself as an individual; of the third, with respect to
society; and of the fourth, with respect to happiness.,vIn the first Epistle the poet argues that we can only
reason from the known to the unknown. We only
know a small portion of the universe, but we can see
that there is in the universe a scale of beings.  It is
the pride of man that regards the universe as made
for his benefit.  Man must absolutely submit to Providence, must allow that, even if he cannot see it, the
Divine order is perfect. The second Epistle's motto is
its second line:
"The proper study of mankind is man."
In man himself there is a balance which makes for.
order, a balance between the two principles of self-love"
and reason.  In man's very imperfections the ends of
Providence are attained. The third Epistle continues
the argument, that the general good is the object of the
Divine government. This is illustrated by the operation of reason and of the instinct of animals; instinct
produces society, whilst reason carries it further. The
different kinds of societies are next shown to arise from
the same principle. Self-love and social love are the
same. The fourth Epistle, which completes the Essay
on Man as it now stands, though not as it was designed
to stand, is concerned with questions about happiness,
the end and aim of man. God meant happiness for all,
and therefore made it depend on general laws. It does
not consist in external goods, such as wealth, honour,




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




0~
0~


r




AN ESSAY ON MAN:
IN FOUR EPISTLES TO
HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE.
THE DESIGN.
EAVING proposed to write some pieces on human life and
manners, such as (to use my Lord Bacon's expression) came
home to men's business and bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering Man in the abstract, his
nature and his state; since, to prove any moral duty, to
enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection
or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary
first to know what condition and relation it is placed in,
and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.
The science of human nature is, like all other sciences,
reduced to a few clear points. There are not many certain
truths in this world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the
mind as in that of the body; more good will accrue to
mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible
parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and
vessels, the conformations and uses of which will for ever
escape our observation. The disputes are all upon these
last, and I will venture to say, they have less sharpened
the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and
S                A




-2


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


have diminished the practice, more than advanced the theory
of morality. If I could flatter myself that this Essay has
any merit, it is in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines
seemingly opposite, in passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming a temperate yet not inconsistent,
and a short yet not imperfect, system of ethics.
This I might have done in prose; but I chose verse, and
even rhyme, for two reasons. The one will appear obvious;
that principles, maxims, or precepts so written, both strike
the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards. The other may seem odd, but it
is true; I found I could express them more shortly this
way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain, tlan
that much of the force as well as grace of arguments or
instructions depends on their conciseness. I was unable to
treat this part of my subject more in detail, without
becoming dry and tedious; or more poetically, without
sacrificing perspicuity to ornament, without wandering
from the precision, or breaking the chain of reasoning. If
any man can unite all these without any diminution of
any of them, I freely confess he will compass a thing above
my capacity.
What is now published, is only to be considered as a
general map of Mlan, marking out no more than the greater
parts, their extent, their limits, and their connection, but
leaving the particular to be more fully delineated in the
charts which are to follow. Consequently, these Epistles
in their progress (if I have health and leisure to make any
progress) will be less dry, and more susceptible of poetical
ornament.  I am here only opening the fountains, and
clearing the passage. To deduce the rivers, to follow them
in their course, and to observe their effects, may be a task
more agreeable.




EPISTLE I.
ARGUMENT.
Of the nature and state of man with respect to
the universe.
Of Man in the abstract.-I. That we can judge only with regard to
our own system, being ignorant of the relation of systems and
things, 17. II. That man is not to be deemed imperfect, but a
being suited to his place and rank in the creation, agreeable to
the general order of things, and conformable to ends and relations
to him unknown, 35. III. That it is partly upon his ignorance
of future events, and partly upon the hope of a future state, that
all his happiness in the present depends, 77. IV. The pride of
aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection,
the cause of man's error and misery. The impiety of putting
himself in the place of God, and judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or injustice, of His
dispensations, 113. V. The absurdity of conceiting himself the
final cause of the creation, or expecting that perfection in the
moral world, which is not in the natural, 131. VI. The unreasonableness of his complaints againrt Providence, while on the
one hand he demands the perfections of the angels, and on the
other the bodily qualifications of the brutes, though, to possess
any of the sensitive faculties in a higher degree, would render
him miserable, 173. VII. That throughout the whole visible
world, an universal order and gradation in the sensual and mental
faculties is observed, which causes a subordination of creature to
creature, and of all creatures to man. The gradations of sense,
instinct, thought, reflection, reason; that Yreason alone countervails all the other faculties, 207. VIII. How much further this
order and subordination of living creatures may extend, above
and below us; were any part of which broken, not that part only,
but the whole connected creation must be destroyed, 233. IX.
The extravagance, madness, and pride of such a desire, 259. X.
The consequence of all, the absolute submission due to Providence, -
both as to our present and future state, 281.
3




EPISTLE I.


AWAKE, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Let us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us, and to die,)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze! but not without a plan;
A wild, where weeds and flow'rs promiscuous shoot;
Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.
Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield;       10
The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;
Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise,
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can;
But vindicate the ways of God to man.
Say first, of God above, or man below,
What can we reason, but from what we know?
Of man, what see we but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?       2C
Thro' worlds unnumber'd tho' the God be known,
'Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
He, who thro' vast immensity can pierce,
See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
4




EPISTLE I.


5


Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns,
What varied being peoples every star,
May tell why Heav'n has made us as we are.
But of this frame the bearings and the ties,
The strong connections, nice dependencies,      30
Gradations just, has thy pervading soul
Look'd thro'? or can a part contain the whole?
Is the great chain that draws all to agree,
And drawn supports, upheld by God or thee?
Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find,
Why fornf'd so weak, so little, and so blind?
First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess,
Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and no less?
Ask of thy mother earth, why oaks are made
Taller or stronger than the weeds they shade?   40
Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove?
Of systems possible, if 'tis confest
That wisdom infinite must form the best,
Where all must full or not coherent be,
And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reas'ning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man:
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long)
Is only this, if God has plac'd him wrong?      50
/ Respecting man whatever wrong we call,
May, must be right, as relative to all.
In human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one single can its end produce;
Yet serves to second too some other use.
So mant who here seems pjncipaal alone,
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.        60




6


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


When the proud steed shall know why man restrains
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;
When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod,
Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god:
Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend
His actions', passions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, suff'ring, check'd, impell'd; and why
This hour a slave, the next a deity..   Then say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault;
Say rather, man's as pefect as he  ht;         70
His knowledge measur'd to his state and place,
His time a moment, and a point his space.
If to be perfect in a certain sphere,
What matter, soon or late, or here or there?
The blest to-day is as completely so,
As who began a thousand years ago.
f Heav'n from all creatures hides teie book of fate,
All but the page prescrib'd, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?          80
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas'd to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv'n,
That each may fill the circle mark'd by Heav'n:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
LAnd now a bubble burst, and now a world.       90
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher death, and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
I Man never is, but always to be blest:




EPISTLE L


7


The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;   100
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To Be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;      110
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fancy'st such,
Say, Here he gives too little, there too much:
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,
Yet cry, If man's unhappy, God's unjust;
If man alone ingross not Heav'n's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there:        120
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the god of God.
In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel:
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause.       130
Ask for what end the heav'nly bodies shine,
Earth for whose use? pride answers, "Tis for mine:




8


ANN ESSAY ON MAIN.


For me kind nature wakes her genial pow'r,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out ev'ry flow'r;
Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew
The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;
For me the mine a thousand treasures brings;
For me health gushes from a thousand springs;
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
My foot-stool earth, my canopy the skies.'     140
But errs not nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
'No ('tis reply'd) the first Almighty Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
Th' exceptions few; some change since all began;
And what created perfect?' —Wly then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then nature deviates; and can man do less?     150
As much that end a constant course requires
Of show'rs and sun-shine, as of man's desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp'rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heav'n's design,
Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline?
Who knows but He, whose hand the light'ning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms;
Pours fierce ambition in a Ctesar's mind,      159
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind
From pride, from pride our very reas'ning springs;
Account for moral as for nat'ral things:
Why charge we heaven in those, in these acquit?
In both to reason right is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind,
That never passion discompos'd the mind.




EPISTLE L


9


But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.         170
The gen'ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.
What would this man? Now upward will he soar,
And little less than angel, would be more;
Now looking downwards, just as griev'd appears
To want the strength of bulls, the fur of bears.
Made for his use all creatures if he call,
Say what their use, had he the pow'rs of all;
Nature to these, without profusion, kind,
The proper organs, proper pow'rs assign'd;    180
Each seeming want compensated of course,
IHere with degrees of swiftness, there of force;
All in exact proportion to the state;
Nothing to add, and nothing to abate.
Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
Is Heav'n unkind to man, and man alone
Shall he alone, whom rational we call,
Be pleas'd with nothing, if not blest with all?
The bliss of man (could pride that blessing find)
Is not to act or think beyond mankind;         190
No pow'rs of body, or of soul to share,    j
But what his nature and his state can bear.
Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason, man is not a fly.
Say what the use, were finer optics giv'n,
T' inspect a mite, not comprehend the heav'n?
Or touch, if tremblingly alive all o'er,
To smart and agonize at ev'ry pore?
Or, quick effluvia darting thro' the brain,
Die of a rose in aromatic pain?              200
If nature thunder'd in his op'ning ears,
And stunn'd him with the music of the spheres,
How would he wish that Heav'n had left him still
The whisp'ring zephyr, and the purling rill?




10


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


Who finds not Providence all good and wise,
Alike in what it gives, and what denies?
Far as creation's ample range extends,
The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends:
Mark how it mounts to man's imperial race,
From the green myriads in the peopled grass:   210
What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme,
The mole's dim curtain, and the lynx's beam:
Of smell, the headlong lioness between,
And hound sagacious on the tainted green:
Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
To that which warbles through the vernal wood?
The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line:
In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true
From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew? 220
How instinct varies in the grov'ling swine,
Compar'd, half reas'ning elephant, with thine!
'Twixt that, and reason, what a nice barrier?
For ever sep'rate, yet for ever near!
Remembrance and reflection how allied;
What thin partitions sense from thought divide?
And middle natures, how they long to join,
Yet never pass th' insuperable line!
Without this just gradation, could they be
Subjected, these to those, or all to thee?    230
The pow'rs of all subdu'd by thee alone,
Is not thy reason all these pow'rs in one?
See, thro' this air, this ocean, and this earth,
All matter quick, and bursting into birth.
Above, how high progressive life may go!
Around, how wide! how deep extend below!
Vast chain of being! which from God began,
Natures sethereal, human, angel, man,
Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see,
No glass can reach; from infinite to thee,     240




EPISTLE L


11


From thee to nothing. On superior pow'rs
Were we to press, inferior might on ours;
Or in the full creation leave a void,
Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd:
From Nature's chain whatever link you strike,
Tenth or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike.
And, if each system in gradation roll
Alike essential to th' amazing whole,
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only, but the whole must fall.      250
Let earth unbalanc'd from her orbit fly,
Planets and suns run lawless thro' the sky;
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd,
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world;
Heav'n's whole foundations to their centre nod,
And nature tremble to the throne of God.
All this dread order break-for whom? for thee?
Vile worm!-oh madness! pride! impiety!
What if the foot, ordain'd the dust to tread,
Or hand, to toil, aspir'd to be the head?       260
What if the head, the eye, or ear repin'd
To serve mere engines to the ruling mind?
Just as absurd for any part to claim
To be another, in this gen'ral frame;
Just as absurd, to mourn the tasks or pains
e  The great directing Mind of all ordains.
>   All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
j (Whose body nature is, and God the soul;
<     That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the same,
^     Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame,  270
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees,
Lives thro' all life, extends thro' all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part,
As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;




12               AN ESSAY ON MAN.
As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As the rapt seraph that adores and burns:
To him no high, no low, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects, and equals all. -  280
Cease then, nor order imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree       V
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit. In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All nature is but art unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;  290
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
One truth is clear, 'Whatever is, is right.'




EPISTLE II
ARGUMENT.
Of the nature and state of man mwth respect to himself
as an individual.
I. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself.
His middle nature: his powers and frailties, 1. The limits
of his capacity, 19. II. The two principles of man, self-love and
reason, both necessary, 53. Self-love the stronger, and why, 67.
Their end the same, 81.  III. The passions, and their use, 93.
The predominant passion, and its force, 131. Its necessity, in
directing men to different purposes, 165. Its providential use, in
fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, 175. IV. Virtue
and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the
things separate and evident: What is the office of reason, 203.
V. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into
it, 217. VI. That, however, the ends of Providence and general
good are answered in our passions and imperfections, 231. How
usefully these are distributed in all orders of men, 241. How
useful they are to society, 249. And to individuals, in every
state, 261, and every age of life, 271
13




EPISTLE II.


KNOW then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;        10
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he 'chinks too little or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd or disabus'd; -
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides; 20
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
14




EPISTLE IL


15


Or tread the maz) round his follow'rs trod,
And quitting sense all imitating God;
As eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their hear to imitate the sun.
Go, teach eternal wisdom how to ruleThen drop into thyself, and be a fool!           30
Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all nature's law,
Admir'd such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And shew'd a Newton as we shew an ape.
Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind,
Describe or fix one movement of his mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning, or his end;
Alas what wonder! man's superior part
Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art;   40
But when his own great work is but begun,
What reason weaves, by passion is undone.
Trace science then, with modesty thy guide;
First strip off all her equipage of pride; -
Deduct what is but vanity or dress,
Or learning's luxury, or idleness;
Or tricks to shew the stretch of human brain,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;
Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts
Of all our vices have created arts;              50
Then see how little the remaining sum,
Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come I
Two principles in human nature reign;
Self-love, to urge, and reason, to restrain;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern all:
And to their proper operation still
Ascribe all Good, to their improper, Ill.
Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.      60




16


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


Man, but for that, no action cro ld attend,
And, but for this, were actiy" to no end:
Fix'd like a plant on his pecu liar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot:
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.
Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires.
Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies,
Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advise.       70
Self-love, still stronger, as its objects nigh;
Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie:
That sees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the consequence.
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,
At best more watchful this, but that more strong.
The action of the stronger to suspend,
Reason still use, to reason still attend.
Attention habit and experience gains;
Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains.  80
Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight,
More studious to divide than to unite;
And grace and virtue, sense and reason split,
With all the rash dexterity of wit.
Wits, just like fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.
Self-love and reason to one end aspire,
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;
But greedy that, its object would devour,
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r:   90
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.
Modes of self-love the passions we may call;
'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all:
But since not ev'ry good we can divide,
And reason bids us for our own provide,




EPISTLE II.


17


Passions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair,
List under Reason, and deserve her care;
Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name.  100
In lazy apathy let Stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:
The rising tempest puts in act the soul,
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale;
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind. 110
Passions, like elements, tho' born to fight,
Yet, mix'd and soften'd, in his work unite:
These 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what composes man, can man destroy?;^
Suffice that reason keep to nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train,
Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain,
These mixt with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind:      120
The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And, when in act they cease, in prospect rise:
Present to grasp, and future still to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On different senses diffrent objects strike;
Hence different passions more or less inflame,
As strong or weak, the organs of the frame;     130
And hence one master passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
B




18


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death;
The young disease, that must subdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength:
So, cast and mingled with his very frame,
The mind's disease, its ruling passion came;
Each vital humour which should feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, in body and in soul:            140
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.
Nature its mother, habit is its nurse;
Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse;
Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r,
As heav'n's blest beam turns vinegar more sour.
We, wretched subjects tho' to lawful sway,
In this weak queen some fav'rite still obey:        150
Ah! if she lend not arms, as well as rules,
What can she more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend,
A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade
The choice we make, or justify it made;
Proud of an easy conquest all along,
She but removes weak passions for the strong.
So, when small humours gather to a gout,
-The doctor fancies he has driven them out.           160
Yes, nature's road must ever be preferr'd;
v Reason is here no guide, but still a guard;
'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this passion more as friend than foe;
A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends,
And sevral men impels to sev'ral ends:
Like varying winds by other passions tost,
This drives them constant to a certain coast.




EPISTLE II.


19


Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease;  170
Thro' life 'tis followed, ev'n at life's expence;
The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride,
All, all alike, find reason on their side.
Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill,
Grafts on this passion our best principle:
'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd;
The dross cements what else were too refin'd,
And in one int'rest body acts with mind.         180
As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear;
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot,
Wild nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
Ev'n av'rice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
Lust, thro' some certain strainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;        190
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;
Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.
Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride)
The virtue nearest to our vice allied:
Reason the byas turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:          200
/ The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.
This light and darkness in our chaos join'd,
What shall divide? The god within the mind.




20


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


> Extremes in nature equal ends produce,
In man they join to some mysterious use;
/Tho' each by turns the other's bound invade,
As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,
And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice.       210
Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,
That vice or virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, soften, and unite
A thousands ways, is there no black or white?
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain;
'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.        220
But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed:
Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed;
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he:
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.           230
Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise;
And ev'l the best, by fits, what they despise.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill;
For, vice or virtue, self directs it still;
Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal;
But Heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole.
That counter-works each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;       240




EPISTLE n.


21


That happy frailties to all ranks apply'd,
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief:
That virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no int'rest, no reward but praise;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.
Heav'n forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend,          250
Bids each on other for assistance call,
'Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common int'rest, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign;
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.       260
Whate'er the passion-knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbour with himself..
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n,
The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;
The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse.        270
See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend:
See some fit passion ev'ry age supply,
Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:




22              AN ESSAY ON MAN.
Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite:,/Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;  281
'Till tir'd he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
Mean-while opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supply'd,
And each vacuity of sense by pride:
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble joy;
One prospect lost, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;             290
Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this, Tho' man 's a fool, yet God is wise.




EPISTLE III.
ARGUMENT.
Of the nature and state of man with respect to society.
I. The whole universe one system of society, 7. Nothing made
wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, 27. The happiness
of animals mutual, 49. II.  eason or inst    ff^te ^alike to
the good of each individual, 79. TIlf.eason or instinct op a e
aso to society in all animals, 109. How far society carried by
instinct, 115. How much farther by Reason, 131. IV. Of that
which is called the state of nature, 143. Reason instructed by
instinct in the invention of arts, 169, and in the forms of society,
179. V. Origin of political societies, 199. Origin of monarchy,
207. VI. Patriarchal government, 212. Origin of true religion
and government, from the same principle of love, 231. Origin
of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear,
241. The influence of self-love operating to the social and public
good, 269. Restoration of true religion and government on their
first principle, 283. Mixt government, 288. Various forms of
each, and the true end of all, 303.
23




EPISTLE III.


HERE then we rest; ' The Universal Cause
Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.'
In all the madness of superfluous health,
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day;
But most be present, if we preach or pray.
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 other tend,             10
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See matter next, with various life endued,
Press to one centre still, the gen'ral 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 born,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.   20
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
24




EPISTLE I.


25


All serv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn:      30
Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own and raptures swell the note.
The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer:     40
The hog, that plows not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.
Know, nature's children all divide her care;
The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear.
While man exclaims, 'See all things for my use!'
'See man for mine!' replies a pampered goose:
And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control;
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole:         50
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,
And helps, another creature's wants and woes.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods;
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:  60




26


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy
Th' extensive blessing of his luxury.
That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage saves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast,
And, till he ends the being, makes it blest:
Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er!     70
To each unthinking being, Heav'n a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it; but with such a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and so remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that Heav'n assign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.
Whether with reason, or with instinct blest,
Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best; 80
To bliss alike by that direction tend,
And find the means proportioned to their end.
Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide,
What Pope or Council can they need beside?
Reason, however able, cool at best,
Cares not for service, or but serves when prest,
Stays 'till we call, and then not often near;
But honest instinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'er-shoot, but just to hit;
While still too wide or short is human wit;       90
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reason labours at in vain.
This too serves always, reason never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;




EPISTLE m.


27


And reason raise o'er instinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.
Who taught the nations of the field and flood
To shun their poison, and to choose their food?  100
Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand?
Who made the spider parallels design,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, states the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
God, in the nature of each being, founds
/ Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds:     110
(1 But as he fram'd a whole the whole to bless,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness:
So from the first, eternal order ran,
And creature link'd to creature, man to man.   ^
Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ether keeps,
Or breathes thro' 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.
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend,
The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend;
The young dismiss'd to wander earth or air,
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care;
The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace,
Another love succeeds, another race.             130
A longer care man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lasting bands:




28


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


Reflection, reason, still the ties improve,
At once extend the int'rest and the love:
With choice we fix, with sympathy we burn;
Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These nat'ral love maintain'd, habitual those:  140
The last, scarce ripen'd into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combin'd,
Still spread the int'rest and preserv'd the kind.
Nor think, in nature's state they blindly trod;
The state of nature was the reign of God:
Self-love and social at her birth began,
Union the bond of all things, and of man.      150
Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid;
Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the shade;
The same his table, and the same his bed;
No murder cloth'd him, and no murder fed.
In the same temple, the resounding wood,
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God:
The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:
Heav'n's attribute was universal care,
And man's prerogative, to rule, but spare.     160
Ah! how unlike the man of times to come!
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;
Who, foe to nature, hears the gen'ral groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.
But just disease to luxury succeeds,
/ And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds;
The fury-passions from that blood began,
And turn'd on man a fiercer savage, man.




EPISTLE m.


29


See him from nature rising slow to art!
To copy instinct then was reason's part;         170
Thus then to man the voice of nature spake,'Go, from the creatures thy instructions take:
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;
Thy arts of building from the bee receive;
Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave;
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
Here too all forms of social union find,
And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind:    180
Here subterranean works and cities see;
There towns aerial on the waving tree.
Learn each small people's genius, policies,
The ants' republic, and the realm of bees;
How those in common all their wealth bestow,
And anarchy without confusion know;
And these for ever, tho' a monarch reign,
Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain.
Mark what unvaried laws preserve each stage,
Laws wise as nature, and as fix'd as fate.       190
In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw,
Entangle justice in her net of law,
And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;
Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.
Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway,
Thus let the wiser make the rest obey;
And for those arts mere instinct could afford,
Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd.'
Great nature spoke; observant man obey'd;
Cities were built, societies were made:          200
Here rose one little state; another near
Grew by like means, and join'd thro' love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the streams in purer rills descend?




30


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


What war could ravish, commerce could bestow,
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.
Converse and love mankind might strongly draw,
When love was liberty, and nature law.
Thus states were form'd; the name of king unknown,
'Till common int'rest plac'd the sway in one.   210
'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms,
Diffusing blessings, or averting harms)
The same which in a sire the sons obey'd,
A prince the father of a people made.
'Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch sate,
King, priest, and parent, of his growing state;
On him, their second Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wondering furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, control the flood,  220
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground,
'Till drooping, sick'ning, dying they began
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as man:
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explor'd
One great first Father, and that first ador'd;
Or plain tradition that this All begun,
Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son;
The worker from the work distinct was known,
And simple reason never sought but one.         230
Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light,
Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right
To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod,
And own'd a father when he own'd a God.
Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then;
For nature knew no right divine in men,
No ill could fear in God; and understood
A sov'reign being, but a sov'reign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran,
That was but love of God, and this of man.      240




EPISTLE III.


31


Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms undone,
Th' enormous faith of many made for one;
That proud exception to all nature's laws,
T' invert the world, and counter-work its cause?
Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law;
'Till superstition taught the tyrant awe,
Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,
And gods of conqu'rors, slaves of subjects made:
She, midst the light'ning's blaze, and thunder's sound,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground,
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,     251
To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes;
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods;
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.    260
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride.
Then sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then first the flamen tasted living food;
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below,
And play'd the god an engine on his foe.
So drives self-love, thro' just, and thro' unjust,
To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust:          270
The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws.
For what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel?
How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?




32


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


His safety must his liberty restrain:
All join to guard what each desires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus by self-defence,
Ev'n kings learn'd justice and benevolence:        280
Self-love forsook the path it first pursu'd,
And found the private in the public good.
t     'Twas then the studious head or gen'rous mind,
Follow'r of God, or friend of human-kind,
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore
The faith and moral nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new,
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew:
Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings,
Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings,
The less, or greater, set so justly true,          291
That touching one must strike the other too;
'Till jarring int'rests of themselves create
Th' according music of a well-mix'd state.
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs
From order, union, full consent of things;
Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made
To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade;
More pow'rful each as needful to the rest,
And in proportion as it blesses blest;            300
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best:
For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right:
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity:
All must be false that thwart-this one great end;
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend.       310
Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.




EPISTLE m.


33


On their own axis as the planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the sun;
So two consistent motions act the soul;
And one regards itself, and one the whole.
Thus God and nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade self-love and social be the same.


c




EPISTLE IV.
ARGUMENT.
Of the nature and state of man with respect to happiness.
I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered,
19. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, 29.
God intends happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be
social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and
since he governs by general, not particular laws, 35. As it is
necessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that
external goods should be unequal, happiness is not made to
consist in these, 49. But notwithstanding that inequality, the
balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by providence,
by the two passions of hope and fear, 67. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution
of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage,
77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities
of nature, or of fortune, 93.  IV. The folly of expecting that
God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, 121.
V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they
are, they must be happiest, 131. VI. That external goods are
not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive
of virtue, 167. That even these can make no man happy without
virtue: Instanced in riches, 185. Honours, 193. Nobility, 205.
Greatness, 217. Fame, 237. Superior talents, 259. With pictures
of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, 269. VII.
That virtue only constitutes a happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, 309.  That the perfection
of virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order
of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter,
326,
34




EPISTLE IV.


OH happiness! our being's end and aim!
C Good, pleasure, ease, content? whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'er-look'd, seen double, by the fool, and wise.
Plant of celestial seed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?      10
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?
Where grows! where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:
Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.
Ask of the learn'd the way! The learn'd are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind;  20
Some place the bliss in action, some in ease,
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these;
Some sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some swell'd to gods, confess ev'n virtue vain;
35




36


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, say they more or less
Than this, that happiness is happiness?
Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;  30
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common sense, and common ease.
Remember, man, the Universal Cause
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;
And makes what happiness we justly call
Subsist not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a blessing individuals find,
But some way leans and hearkens to the kind:     40
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd hermit, rests self-satisfied:
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend:
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink:
Each has his share; and who would more obtain,
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is heav'n's first law; and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,    50
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase;
All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:        60




EPISTLE IV.


37


Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike possest,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those.;
But Heav'n's just balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in hope, and these in fear: 70
Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse.
Oh sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind,
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. 80
But health consists with temperance alone;
And peace, oh virtue! peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain;
But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight,
Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right?
Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst,
Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?
Count all th' advantage prosp'rous vice attains,
'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains:     90
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want, which is, to pass for good.
Oh blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below,
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe!
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best,
Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest.




38


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


But fools the good alone unhappy call,
For ills or accidents that chance to all.
See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust!     100
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife!
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?
Say, was it virtue, more tho' heav'n ne'er gave,
Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if virtue made the son expire,
Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire?
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath,
When nature sicken'd, and each gale was death?
Or why so long (in life if long can be)
Lent Heav'n a parent to the poor and me?        110
What makes all physical or moral ill?
There deviates nature, and here wanders will.
God sends not ill; if rightly understood,
/Or partial ill is universal good,
Or change admits, or nature lets it fall,
Short, and but rare, 'till man improv'd it all.
We just as wisely might of Heav'n complain
That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain,
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease,
When his lewd father gave the dire disease.     120
Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause
Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws?
Shall burning IEtna, if a sage requires,
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?
On air or sea new motions be imprest,
Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?
When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by?
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall,
For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall?    130
But still this world (so fitted for the knave)
Contents us not. A better shall we have?




EPISTLE IV.


39


A kingdom of the just then let it be:
( But first consider how those just agree.
The good must merit God's peculiar care;
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?
One thinks on Calvin heav'n's own spirit fell;
Another deems him instrument of hell;
If Calvin feel heavn's blessing, or its rod,
This cries there is, and that, there is no God.    140
What shocks one part will edify the rest,
Nor with one system can they all be blest.
The very best will variously incline,
And what rewards your virtue, punish mine,
Whatever is, is right. This world, 'tis true,
Was made for Caesar-but for Titus too;
And which more blest, who chain'd his country, say,
Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day?
'But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed.'
( What then? is the reward of virtue bread?          150
That vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;
The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil,
The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be indolent;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.
But grant him riches, your demand is o'er?
'No, shall the good want health, the good want power?'
Add health and pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing,
'Why bounded pow'r? why private? why no king?      160
Nay, why external for internal giv'n?
Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n?'
Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive
God gives enough, while He has more to give:
Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand;
Say, at what part of nature will they stand?
What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The soul's calm sun-shine, and the heart-felt joy,




40


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


Is virtue's prize: a better would you fix?
Then give humility a coach and six,             170
Justice a conq'ror's sword, or truth a gown,
Or public spirit its great cure, a crown.
/ Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward us there
K With the same trash mad mortals wish for here?
The boy and man an individual makes,
Yet sigh'st thou now for apples or for cakes?
Go, like the Indian, in another life
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife,
As well as dream such trifles are assign'd,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind.       180
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring
No joy, or be destructive of the thing:
How oft by these at sixty are undone
The virtues of a saint at twenty-one!
To whom can riches give repute, or trust,
Content, or pleasure, but the good and just?
Judges and senates have been bought for gold,
Esteem and love were never to be sold.
Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human-kind,           190
Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear,
Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.
Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
- Fortune in men has some small difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
'What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl!'
I'll tell you, friend: a wise man and a fool.   200
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.




EPISTLE IV.


41


Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings,
That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings:
Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:
But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate,
Count me those only who were good and great.  210
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Has crept thro' scoundrels ever since the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
Look next on greatness; say where greatness lies.
'Where, but among the heroes and the wise?'
Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to th' Swede;         220
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.
No less alike the politic and wise;
All sly slow things, with circumspective eyes:
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat;
'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great:   230
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.
What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath,
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Just what you hear, you have, and what's unknown
The same (my Lord) if Tully's, or your own.   240




42


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends;
To all beside as much an empty shade
An Eugene living, as a Caesar dead;
Alike, or when, or where they shone, or shine,
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Fame but from death a villain's name can save,
As justice tears his body from the grave;       250
When what t' oblivion better were resign'd,
Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.
All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One self approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Caesar with a senate at his heels.
In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?      260
'Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own:
Condemn'd in bus'ness or in arts to drudge,
Without a second, or without a judge:
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.
Bring then these blessings to a strict account;
Make fair deductions; see to what they 'mount: 270
How much of other each is sure to cost;
How each for other oft is wholly lost;
EHow inconsistent greater goods with these;
How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease:
Think, and if still the things thy envy call,
Say, would'st thou be the man to whom they fall?




EPISTLE IV.


43


To sigh for ribbons if thou art so silly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life?
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.        280
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!
If all, united, thy ambition call,
From ancient story learn to scorn them all.
There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd and great,
See the false scale of happiness complete!
In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay,
How happy those to ruin, these betray!         290
Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,
From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,
And all that rais'd the hero sunk the man:
Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,
But stain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold:
Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease,
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.
Oh wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame
E'er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame!  300
What greater bliss attends their close of life?
Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,
The trophied arches, storied halls invade,
And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade.
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray,
Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A tale, that blends their glory with their shame!
C    K' Know then this truth, enough for man to know,
Virtue alone is happiness below.               310
- The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;




44


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives;. The joy unequal'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lose, attended with no pain:
Without satiety, tho' e'er so bless'd,
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd:
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:     320
Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd,
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;
Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected, while another's bless'd;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.
See the sole bliss Heav'n could on all bestow!
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know:
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must miss, the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,    331
But looks through nature up to nature's God:
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no being any bliss can know,
X  But touches some above, and some below
Learns, from this union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
All end, in love of God, and love of man.       340
For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens still, and opens on his soul;
'Till lengthen'd on to faith, and unconfin'd,
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.
He sees, why nature plants in man alone
Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown:
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind
Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find;)




EPISTLE IV.


45


Wise is her present; she connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;    350
At once his own bright prospect to be blest,
And strongest motive to assist the rest.
Self-love thus push'd to social, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine.
>  Is this too little for the boundless heart?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense,
In one close system of benevolence:
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of bliss but height of charity.       360
God loves from whole to parts: but human soul
(  Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
The centre mov'd, a circle strait succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind;           370
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest,
And heav'n beholds its image in his breast.
Come then, my friend, my genius, come along;
Oh master of the poet, and the song!
And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends,
To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;        380
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.
Oh! while along the stream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fanme




46               AN   ESSAY ON MAN.
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?    390
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For wit's false mirror held up nature's light;
Shew'd erring pride, whatever is, is right;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim;
That true self-love and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know. '




NOTES.
THE DESIGN.
my Lord Bacon. It is curious to find this common mistake so
early, as in Pope. It may be regarded as a popular protest
against the disguise of name adopted by many newly-made
peers, but wisely not by Macaulay nor by Tennyson. It is
known that Bacon was a lord; but the popular mind does not
burden itself with his titles, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Albans.
The quotation is from the dedication of the enlarged edition of
the Essays, in 1625, to the Duke of Buckingham: "I do now
publish my Essays, which, of all my works, have been most
current, for that, as it seems, they come home to men's business
and bosoms." On Bacon, see note, iv. 281.
EPISTLE I.
Argument. The old meaning of this word was 'subject.' So
Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 24:
" The height of this great argument."
The Latin argumentum has this force, and is specially used for
the subject-matter of a play. Milton also uses 'argument,'
as Pope here, for a summary of the contents of a book. An
argument is prefixed to each book of the Paradise Lost.
5. Expatiate, derived from Latin ex and spatior, to range over.
(1) To wander in space without restraint; (2) in discussion or
argument, to travel over wide ground.
6. maze. A kind of practical puzzle; hedges being planted so
as to make a long walk with intricate turnings in a small space.
47




48


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


There is a very famous maze in the grounds of Hampton Court
Palace. The most famous labyrinth in ancient story (name said
to be derived from an Egyptian king named Labyris, but more
probably akin to the Greek Xa6pa, a passage,) was that built by
Daedalus in Crete, to imprison the fabulous beast, the minotaur.
The only means of finding the way in or out of this was by a
skein of thread. There was a similar fable in English history to
the effect that Henry II. built a labyrinth at Woodstock to imprison fair Rosamond. The word 'maze' is said to be from A.S.
word, meaning a whirlpool. There is a verb 'maze,' to confuse
(like amaze); and in provincial English the word means to
wander as if stupefied, mazed, drunk. In the first edition this
line was:
"A mighty maze of walks without a plan."
Pope altered it, says Dr. Johnson, because "if there were no
plan, it was in vain to describe or to trace the maze."
7. A wild. 10. the open. These words, here nouns, are properly adjectives. Wild, as a noun, is commoner in the plural,
'the wilds of Africa.' Milton, Pardise Regained, i. 331, has:
" I saw and heard, for we sometimes
Who dwell this wild, constrained by want, come forth
To town or village nigh (nighest is far)."
10. covert is used indifferently as noun or adjective. It is properly participle of verb 'cover.' It is adjective in Bacon's Essay
Of Gardens: " You are, of either side the green, to plant a covert
alley, upon carpenters' work, about twelve feet in height, by
which you may go in shade into the garden." It is noun in
Milton's Comus, 945:
"I shall be your faithful guide
Through this gloomy covert wide."
The modern sporting term is cover.
Notice the metaphors from field sports: beat, open, covert
from the chase; shoot as it flies from shooting. Abbott and
Seeley, English Lessons for English People, p. 103, say that
"technical metaphors borrowed from   athletic sports, polite
amusements and warfare, being also vivid and real, are liked by
the English people and used by our best authors."  They instance, 'pull well together,' 'force an antagonist's hand,' but
also remark that many similar metaphors are in bad taste and
vulgar, the only safe rule being the custom of polite society.
Mr. Pattison quotes two quaint parallel passages from two old
writers, showing the use of similar illustrations, even on the
most serious topics. Henry King (chaplain to James I.):
"   guide my faith! and by thy grace's clew
Teach me to hunt that. kingdom at the view."




NOTES.


49


And Francis Quarles (a contemporary of King):
"In the discovery of the chiefest good
Keenly they hunted, beat in every brake,
Forward they went, on either hand, and back
Returned they counter; but their deep mouth'd art,
Though often challeng'd scent, yet ne'er could start
In all the enclosures of philosophy
That game, from squat, they term felicity."
Beating is done with a view to start the game,
13. Eye. A verb. Milton's Comws, 329:
" Eye me, blest Providence."
15. candid. According to Elwin, 'candid' has here the unusual
sense of ' lenient and favourable in our judgment.' The word is
derived from the Latin candidus (white), and usually means
' open, ingenuous, free from malice.' In this sense, Pope has the
lines:
"A candid judge will read each piece of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ."
'Candid' is used ironically in the sense of 'anxious to find fault'
in the well-known lines:
"But of all plagues, good heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh! save me, from the candid friend."
Canning,.New Morality.
16. vindicate the ways of God. Imitated from Milton's intro
duction to Paradise Lost, i. 26:
"I may assert Eternal Providence
And justify the ways of God to men."
26. circle. Verb, sometimes active, meaning as here-(a) to
move round an object, or (b) to surround, i.e. be round it, sometimes (c) neuter, to move round. Illustrations from Milton's
Paradise Lost:
(a) "Angels,-for ye behold Him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, day without night
Circle his throne rejoicing " (v. 163).
(b) "Of beaming sunny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head " (iii. 626).
(c) "For seasons and for days and circling years " (vii. 342).
27. What varied being peoples every star. "Before the great
truths of astronomy were demonstrated; before the dimensions
and motions of the planets were ascertained, and the fixed stars
placed at inconceivable distances from the system to which we
belong, philosophers and poets described in the celestial spheres,
the abodes of the blest; but it was not till the form and size and
motions of the earth were known, and till the conditions of the
D




50


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


other planets were found to be the same, that analogy compelled
us to believe that these planets must be inhabited like our own"
(Sir David Brewster, More Worlds Than One, introduction).
The first formal treatise on the Plurality of Worlds was published in Paris in 1686 by M. Fontenelle, Secretary to the
Academy of Sciences. This date is one year before the publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia. Many astronomers,
including Newton, have written in support of the view that the
earth is not the only orb in the universe on which animate life is
found. Dr. Whewell, however, has taken the opposite side. His
treatise on the subject bears the title of the Plurality of Worlds.
There is little doubt that this book, which is a book of marked
ability, was the work of Whewell's pen; but Whewell never
definitely acknowledged that it was written by him.
peoples every star. For the thought, compare Tennyson.
Ode on Death of Duke of Wellington:
"Tho' world on world in myriad myriads roll
Round us, each with different powers
And other forms of life than ours."
People used as verb in Thomson, Seasons, Summer, 250:
"Ten thousand forms, ten thousand diff'rent tribes
People the blaze."
Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 151, has the opposite verb:
"To have dispeopled Heaven."
29. this frame, the world. The metaphor is from a fabric put
together of various parts or members, and arranged upon a
definite system. Tillotson, in his sermons, says: "We see this
vast frame of the world and an innumerable multitude of creatures in it; all which we who believe in a God attribute to Him
as the author." Bacon, Essay 16, Of Atheism: "I had rather
believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud and the
Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind."
Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 154:
"These are Thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! Thine this universalframe."
41. argent fields, the sky, bright like silver. Borrowed from
Milton, Paradise Lost, iii. 460:
"Those argentfields more likely habitants,
Translated saints or middle spirits hold."
42. Jove's Satellites.  Latin satelles, a companion.  "This
word is commonly pronounced in prose with e mute in the plural,
as in the singular, and is therefore only of three syllables, but
Pope has in the plural continued the Latin form and assigned it
four, I think, improperly" (Johnson, Dictionary). Mr. Patti



NOTES.


51


son, on the contrary, says this was the pronunciation of Pope's
time. He quotes a contemporary poet:
"By his example in their endless race
The primaries lead their satellites."
If the word rhymes with race, it looks like a Latin word pronounced in the Italian fashion, which is now called 'the new'
pronunciation, but is really the old. Words recently taken from
the Latin, and still unfamiliar, naturally retain their Latin shape
and pronunciation. So Shakspere, Julius Caesar, III. ii. 192:
"Here at the base of Pompey's statua" (not statue).
Bacon, Essay 13,: ("Misanthropi" (not misanthropes).  When
the word has become familiar, the pronunciation follows the
English rule, throwing the accent back.
The planet Jupiter (here called Jove) has four satellites which
revolve round it, as the moon revolves round the earth. The
smallest is about the size of the moon. The diameter of Jupiter
is more than twelve times the diameter of the earth; its bulk
about 340 times. Voltaire's comment on this passage was that
Pope need not have asked the skies. Any mathematician could
have told him that if the satellites had been larger than Jove,
Jove would have moved round them!
45. Where all, etc., i.e. where there can be no gap, unless there
is to be a want of cohesion (Ward).
55. one single, i.e. movement.
64. Egypt's god. Apis, the Bull of Memphis, enjoyed the
highest honours as a god among the Egyptians. It is not certain
whether the bull himself was worshipped, or whether he was
regarded as the symbol of a great divinity, as, for instance, the
sun. There was an elaborate system of marks by which it was
recognized that a particular bull was Apis. He was treated with
strict ceremony, but was not allowed to live more than twentyfive years, when he was killed and secretly buried in a well.
Then another bull with the marks was sought. Milton confuses
Osiris with Apis (On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, 213):
"Nor is Osiris seen
In Memphian grove, or green,
Trampling the unshower'd grass with lowings loud."
69. fault, rhyming with ought. Johnson (Dictionary) says,
"The I is sometimes sounded and sometimes mute. In conversation it is generally suppressed." Now-a-days it is always
sounded. The 1 is from the Latin fallo. The French is falte,
where the I has changed into u.
77. hides the book of fate. Compare Horace, Odes, TIT. xxix. 29:
"Prudens futuri temporis exitum
Caliginosa nocte premit Deus."




52


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[ rPSTLE


86. Heav'n. Pope frequently uses Heaven in the sense of
God. Hence here the relative "who." At iii. 77 he uses "its"
of Heav'n.
87. Who sees.. a sparrow fall. Pope had manifestly in his
mind the words of Christ. St. Matt. x. 29-31, "Are not two
sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on
the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more
value than many sparrows." The expression equal eye seems to
imply that Pope considered the death of a hero or of a sparrow,
the bursting of a bubble and destruction of a world equal in the
eyes of God. He probably does not mean more than that God
cares for small things as well as great. St. Paul's language seems
rather to imply the contrary (Cor. ix. 9, 10)-" Doth God take
care for oxen? or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our
sakes, no doubt, this is written."
89. Atoms, an imaginary body, so small that it cannot be cut
smaller. Greek, 6Tro/zos, indivisible; rT/vetv, to cut. See iii. 10.
Some ancient philosophers held that the world was made of a
" fortuitous concourse of atoms." This doctrine is laughed at in
the Rejected Addresses in the lines assigned to Dr. Busby:
"I sing how casual bricks in airy climb
Encountered casual horsehair, casual lime,
How rafters borne thro' wondering clouds elate
Kissed in their slope blue elemental slate."
95. Elwin quotes a lively saying ascribed to Bacon:
"Hopes makes a good breakfast but a bad supper."
96. Man never is, but always to be blest. The following strange
commentary is from Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. v., p. 295:
" He (Dr. Johnson) asserted that the present was never a happy
state to any human being; but that, as every part of life, of
which we are conscious, was at some point of time a period yet
to come, in which felicity was expected, there was some happiness produced by hope. Being pressed upon this subject, and
asked if he really was of opinion that though, in general, happiness was very rare in human life, a man was not sometimes happy
in the moment that was present, he answered-' Never, but when
he is drunk.'"
98. expatiates. See line 5, note.
100. wind, formerly always rhymed with mind. Now-a-days
we make the i short. Johnson said, "I cannot find it in my
mind to call it wind."
102. Pope in a note says that, according to an ancient belief,
the souls of the just were admitted to the milky way. This is
expressed in Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, a part of the de Republica, in former times much read.




NOTES.


53


110. seraph. Derived from a Hebrew verb meaning 'to burn.'
Cp. Isaiah vi. 6: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me,
having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs
from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin purged." The proper Hebrew plural of the word is
seraphim. It is curious that the translators of the English Bible
added an s. See also line 278:
"As the rapt seraph that adores and burns."
112. dog. Critics have objected to this that the dog is not a
native of the new world. This is an error. Columbus found two
kinds of dog in the West Indies, and Fernandez describes three
in Mexico. (See Darwin, Animals and Plants under Domestication, chap. i., p. 23.)-Pattison.
113. sense, sc. the senses.
117. gust. Latin, gustus, taste. For thy gust, "in order to
please your palate." The word is not used in the present day,
though the compound 'disgust' is very common. The French
gout may also be compared. There is plenty of authority for
' gust' in writers before Pope; e.g. Milton's Paradise Lost, x. 565:
"They fondly thinking to allay
Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
Chew'd bitter ashes, which th' offended taste
With spattering noise rejected."
Johnson makes this gust = gusto, which is really an Italian word,
and when used in English means special delight in tasting.
Shakspere, Timon of Athens, II. v. 54:
"To kill I grant is sin's extremest gust;
But in defence by many 'tis made just."
The word gust, meaning a sudden blast of wind, is wholly different,
probably from an Icelandic root.
121. The balance in which qualities are weighed; the rod with
which offences are chastised (Elwin).
133. genial, birth-giving. Connected with Latin gigno, genui,
I give birth to. Greek yiyvojat, I become. Cp. Genius.
136. nectareous, nectar, the drink of the Gods, as ambrosia, the
food of the Gods.
140. canopy, from the Greek Kwv7reov, which is from K&vwY@,
a gnat, and is literally a net to keep away gnats, a mosquito
curtain. By the law of amelioration the word has passed on to
mean a grander covering, as that over a throne.
143. Pope is alluding to a recent earthquake in Chili in the
February of the year in which this Epistle was published. It
lasted at intervals for nearly the whole month, and swallowed
up a whole city.




54


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


156. Borgia. COesar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI., but
born before his father's elevation to the Papal Throne. He was
handsome, highly accomplished, and brave, but probably the
worst man of a very wicked age. His physical strength was so
great that he could cut off a bull's head with a single blow of his
sword. His personal fascinations were such that he could gain
almost any point he wished by persuasion. Yet his favourite
methods of achieving his ends were not force or flattery, but
lying, poison, or the dagger of the assassin. Poor Italy won
through him and those like him the hateful nickname of "the
Poisoner." He poisoned his own brother; and at length poison,
which he used so freely, nearly killed him. His father the Pope,
and he, by mistake, drank some poison which they had intended
for a company of twelve cardinals. To complete the horror of
such a story, it has only to be added that this poison was being
given in the Holy Eucharist. The Pope died, but Caesar, owing
to his strong constitution, recovered. In consequence, however,
of the advancement of a personal enemy to the papacy, he was
forced to betake himself to the profession of a soldier of fortune;
and after living the life of an adventurer for a few years, he was
killed in an unimportant skirmish.
Catiline. See ii. 199. L. Sergius Catilina, a Roman noble,
made famous by his conspiracy to upset the constitution of his
country. Sallust has written a history of this conspiracy, which
also stands famous in literature because of the speeches which
Cicero made against Catiline. Catiline was of great physical
strength, licentious, and reckless. He became the leader of a
band of young nobles like him in character at a time when the
simplicity of the earlier Romans was disappearing. Cicero was
the consul who detected and quelled the conspiracy; and it may
be added that Cicero was never tired of boasting of his services
in the matter.
160. young Ammon. When Alexander of Macedon in his victorious career came to Egypt, he made a pilgrimage across the
desert to an oasis, in which was situated the famous shrine of
Ammon, the great Libyan deity, the protector of flocks, always
represented wearing the horns of a ram. Those who managed
the oracle had sufficient of the spirit of courtiers to know that
a little flattery would propitiate the great conqueror. They
saluted him therefore as the son of Ammon, and he was duly
proud of the title. Temple of Fame, 151-4:
" High on a throne with trophies charg'd, I view'd
The youth that all things but himself subdued:
His feet on sceptres and tiaras trod
And his horm'd head belied the Libyan God."
And Epistle to Arbuthnot, 117:
" Ammon's great son one shoulder had too high."




NOTES.


55


174. See Ps. viii. 5, " For thou hast made liiiii a little lower
than the angels."
181. compensated. Notice the accent is on the second syllable.
Now-a-days the accent is generally on the third. The older
practice follows the English rule, which is to throw the accent
as far back as possible.
193. microscopic eye, an eye like a microscope. It is Sam
Weller's "pair o' patent double million magnifyin' gas microscopes of hextra power."  Thomson, Summer, 288:
" Evading e'en the microscopic eye,"
sc. the eye of the microscope. Locke says, "if man had a
microscopical eye." Professor Huxley in the passage quoted, in
the note on 201, uses microscopic in the sense of something very
small, requiring a microscope to see it.
195. optics. Optics, properly, the science that treats of light
and vision, and all that is connected with sight. But optic is
here used as meaning an eye.
finer optics, eyes with stronger power of vision.
197. The grammar is defective: it has suffered through compression. " What were the use, if touch were tremblingly alive
all o'er." And again, " What were the use if we were to die of
a rose."
198. agonize, to suffer pain. Greek, cyibv, a struggle. Milton
wrote a play called Samson Agonistes. We do not use the simple
word 'agonist,' but we do its compound, ' antagonist.' Thomson
uses the verb, Summer, 1047:
" You heard the groans
Of agonizing ships from shore to shore."'
The ships are represented as in pain because their crews were in
pain.
201. If nature thunder'd. Locke, Essay on Human Understanding, ii. 23, says: "If our sense of hearing were but one
thousand times quicker than it is, how would a perpetual noise
distract us? We should in the quietest retirement be less able
to sleep or meditate than in the middle of a sea fight." Compare,
also, the following: "The spectacle afforded by the wonderful
energies prisoned within the compass of the microscopic hair of a
plant, which we commonly regard as a merely passive organism,
is not easily forgotten by one who has watched its display, continued hour after hour, without pause or sign of weakening.
The possible complexity of many other organic forms, seemingly
as simple as the protoplasm of the nettle, dawns upon one; and
the comparison of such a protoplasm to a body with an internal
circulation, which has been put forward by an eminent physiologist, loses much of its startling character. Currents similar




56


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLEI


to those of the hairs of the nettle have been observed in a great
multitude of very different plants, and weighty authorities have
suggested that they probably occur, in more or less perfection,
in all young vegetable cells. If such be the case, the wonderful
noonday silence of a tropical forest is, after all, due only to the
dulness of our hearing; and could our ears catch the murmur of
these tiny maelstroms, as they whirl in the innumerable myriads
of living cells which constitute each tree, we should be stunned,
as with the roar of a great city " (" The Physical Basis of Life,"
by Professor Huxley, Fortnightly Review for February, 1869,
p. 132).
202. music of the spheres. Pythagoras maintained that the
rotation of the planets was attended with music. Plato held a
very similar theory. The fancy is very common in English
poetry. Shakspere, Merchant of Venice, v. i. 60:
"There's not the smallest orb, which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.'
Milton, On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, 125;
Ring out, ye crystal spheres!
Once bless our human ears,
If ye have power to touch our senses so."
One of Milton's Cambridge Prolusions is On the Miusic of the
Spheres, which he affirms that we should hear, if our hearts were
pure and our minds not bowed down to earth. That is Shakspere's reason why we do not hear-our ears are closed in by
decay. Pope seems to imply that our ears are not fine enough.
Plato says, thatit is because the music is continuous; if there
were a break in the sound, we should notice the change. Pope's
view seems to be that of Cicero. " Hic vero tantus est totius
mundi incitatissima conversione sonitus, ut eum aures hominum
capere non possint, sicut intueri solem  adversum  nequitis"
("Scipio's Dream," De Repub., VI. xviii.).
204. purling, making a gentle noise: compare purr of a cat.
There is a Swedish word like it, meaning ' simmer' or 'murmur.'
Wedgwood, who is often fanciful, connects it with pearl, as
if the brook were dropping or rolling pearls. Milton, Paradise
Regained, ii. 345:
" All fish from sea or shore,
Freshet, or purling brook, or shell or fin."
Pope, in the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 150:
" A painted mistress or a purling stream"




NOTES.


57


And Pope in a note thereto says that
" A painted meadow or a purling stream,"
is a verse of Mr. Addison.
210. green myriads. The myriads are not green; it is the
grass that is green.
212. curtain. beam. These are strong expressions for dim
sight and very keen sight.
213. 'the headlong lioness. The manner of the lions hunting
their prey in the deserts of Africa is this: At their first going
out in the night-time they set up a loud roar, and then listen to
the noise made by the beasts in their flight, pursuing them by
the ear, and not by the nostril.  It is probable the story of
the jackal's hunting for the lion was occasioned by observation
of this defect of scent in that terrible animal (Pope).
214. tainted. On which the scent lies.
219. nice. Used four times in the Essay on HAan: here, the
nice bee.  30. Nice dependencies.  223. A nice barrier. II.209. The difference is too nice.  In each of the instances the
word implies ' keen discrimination'; but in the case of the bee it
is subjective, discriminating, whereas in the others it is objective
-dependencies, barrier, difference, which only a delicate sense
perceives. Milton, Comus, 139: "The nice morn "-fastidious
morning. Paradise Regained, iv. 157:
"Nothing will please the difficult and nice,"
i.e. fastidious. This use is by no means extinct, though it is not
as common as the meaning 'good to eat,' or especially amongst
ladies, as a general term of praise. It is from Latin nescius,
ignorant, through the Old French nice. In English, the word
first meant 'foolish,' as in Chaucer; and even in Shakspere,
Second Part of Henry IV., rv. i. 191:
" every idle, nice and wanton reason,"
where 'nice' means foolish. The steps are (1) foolish, simple;
(2) fastidious, hard to please; (3) delicious.
221. the grov'ling swine. Milton, Comus, 53:
"And downward fell into a groveling svine."
Proverbs, xi. 22: " As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout." In all
of these cases the word is singular. The German schwein is
singular. The word is now generally plural, and there are
people who maintain that it is an Anglo-Saxon plural, a corruption of sowen; but the old use in the singular and the German
form seem to disprove this.  Grov'ling, properly an adverb, the
termination being similar to that of darkling and headlong. As
the word ended in ing, it was taken for a present participle, and
the verb grovel invented.




58


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


tE.PISTLPE


223. barrier. Here a dissyllable and with the accent on the
second syllable. The word, apparently new, from French
barrierk, and the English law of throwing back the accent not
yet in operation.
234. quick, living. So in the Apostle's Creed: "From thence
He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." And 2 Tim.
iv. 1. A quick set hedge is a hedge of living plants set to grow.
The quick under the nail. We use the expression 'stung to the
quick' when an insult is felt very keenly. The root is Teutonic,
but connected with the Latin vigeo, vivo. The other meaning,
' moving fast,' is connected, as fast motion may be taken as a
special sign of life.
237. Vast chain of being. Thonmson, Seasons, Summer, 333:
" Has any seen
The mighty chain of beings, lessening down
From Infinite Perfection to the brink
Of dreary nothing, desolate abyss!
From which astonish'd thought, recoiling, turns?"
The similarity is sufficiently close to suggest a comparison of
dates. Thomson published the Seasons in 1727. This Epistle of
The Essay on Man appeared in 1732. Mr. Ward says that the
passage was added by Thomson in the second edition of his poem,
but in Bell's edition of Thomson the variations from the first
edition are carefully marked, and Mr. Ward's statement is not
borne out. it is known that some of the alterations in later
editions of Thomson's Seasons were suggested by Pope.
259. Compare 1 Cor. xii. 15-21.
270. ethereal. Properly of the nature of ether, subtlest of
the elements, poetically used for heavenly, celestial. So used
by Milton.
276. hair as heart. Notice the alliteration:
"Apt alliteration's artful aid."
"Begot by butchers, but by bishops bred,
How high his Honour holds his haughty head."
In early English poetry alliteration is a constant feature. In
The Vision of Piers the Plowman it takes the place occupied by
rhyme in later poetry. Its use in this passage is strongly condemned by Dugald Stuart. " Alliteration pleases only on slight
occasions, when it may be supposed that the mind is in some degree
playful, and under the influence of those principles of association
which commonly take place when we are careless or disengaged.
Every person must be offended with this... which forms part of
a very sublime description of the Divine power " (Works, vol. ii.,
p. 262). The alliteration is not the only fault in this passage.
The antithesis is unreal, for there is no connection between hair




NOTES.


59


and heart, and no reason why they should be contrasted. It has
been called "a vile antithesis."
278. rapt, snatched away. Skeat says the word was originally
English, from Scandinavian. The O. Eng. verb was 'rap,' to
hurry, to seize hastily, to snatch. " To rap out an oath" is a
modern survival of this. ' Rapped' was the past participle,
spelt 'rapt' by confusion with Latin raptus, past participle of
rapere, to seize. The influence of the Latin word has absorbed
the earlier.
seraph... burns. See note on 1. 110.
279. To him. " The concluding lines appear to be a false jingle
of words which neutralize the whole of Pope's argument. If
there is to Providence 'no high, no low, no great, no small,' the
gradation of beings is a delusion. What things are in the sight
of God that they are in reality, and since no one thing in
creation is superior or inferior to any other thing, Pope's language throughout this Epistle is unmeaning. The final phrase of
the couplet is bathos. God is not only the equal of all His
works, He is immeasurably beyond them" (Elwin). But
surely "equals," in this passage means 'makes equal.'
286. Secure. Used here in the sense in which we now use the
shorter form of the same word, sure; having no doubt that you
will be as blest. Its origin is Latin, se or sine cura. The
earlier meaning was careless, not so much safe as careless,
indifferent. Shakspere, Macbeth, III. v. 32:
"And you all know security
Is mortals chiefest enemy."
Ben Jonson has:
" Men may securely sin, but safely never."
Quarles:
" The way to be safe is not to be secure."
293. In the first edition this line ran:
" And spite of pride and in thy reason's spite."
Dr. Johnson says that Pope discovered "that the truth which
subsisted in spite of reason could not be very clear."
EPISTLE II.
1. Know thyself, Juvenal xi. 27, says:
E caelo descendit yv0t o-eauvrbv.
The author of this oldest philosophic dictum is unknown, so it
was attributed to Apollo. The Seven Sages met at Delphi, and




60


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


as the first fruits of their wisdom, they wrote on the Temple of
Apollo, " Know thyself," and "Nothing in excess."
2. Often quoted, often misquoted.
5. sceptic.  More properly it would be spelt 'skeptic.
From Greek Ker7rro/aL, I look round, consider. A sceptic is one
who doubts, and ought to be distinguished from an unbeliever,
who has made up his mind.
6. Stoic's. A school of ancient philosophers, founded by Zeno.
The name is derived from  -rTO TrotIKIXr, painted porch, the place
where the founder taught. The passage below (101-110) gives
the ordinary view of the Stoics. They believed that the passions
were only given to be crushed, and this passionless state they
called Apathy (a, not; rrdaos, passion). It may be doubted
whether the Stoics intended their "apathy" to be so complete
as Pope describes it, or meant more than that man should keep
himself free from the mastery of passion. Certainly, the Stoics,
especially those of the later Roman Commonwealth, and to the
days of Marcus Aurelius, lived very noble lives, by no means
deserving the epithet "lazy" of 1. 101. The Epicureans are
generally contrasted with the Stoics. The teaching of Epicurus
was, "Follow nature; pleasure is the highest good." By nature,
he meant the higher nature of man; by pleasure, the pleasures
of intellect and "contemplation of Diviner things." But his
followers corrupted a doctrine that was true by transferring it
to lower pleasures. Their motto became, " Let us eat and drink,
for to-morrow we die." Horace describes sensualists as "Epicuri de grege porci," 'Pigs from  Epicurus' stye'; and the
English word 'epicure' simply means 'one fond of good eating.'
8. god or beast.  8O-piov ) Oe6s. Aristotle, Ethics, vII. i. 2.
14. abus'd, here used in an obsolete sense, deceived. The
French abuser means to deceive. Bacon, Natural History, No.
126: "The world hath been much abused by the opinion of
making gold. The work itself I judge to be possible; but the
means hitherto propounded are, in the practice, full of error."
16. Great lord, etc. Pensles de Pascal, Art. xxii.: "Quelle
chimere est-ce done que l'homme? Quelle nouveaute, quel
monstre, quel chaos, quel sujet de contradiction, quel prodige!
Juge de toutes choses, imbecile ver de terre, d6positaire du vrai,
cloaque d'incertitude et d'erreur, gloire et rebut de l'univers."
20. So Tennyson, Locksley Hall (near end):
"Rift the hills and roll the waters, flash the lightnings, weigh
the sun."
Horace, Odes, I. xxviii. 4:
" Nec quicquam tibi prodest
Aerias tentasse domos, animoque rotundum
Percurrisse polum, morituro."




NOTES.


61


22. Correct old Time. An allusion to the Reform of the
Calendar amongst Continental nations, which was not introduced
into England until 1752, when eleven days were slipped out in
the month of November, greatly to the indignation of the
ignorant, whose cry was " give us back our eleven days."
23. Plato. An eminent Greek philosopher, a disciple of
Socrates. Most of what we know about the teaching of Socrates
comes to us through the Dialogues of Plato. In these Socrates
is the chief speaker, and the writer seems to efface himself, never
putting forward his own views, but making all that he has to
say proceed from the mouth of his master Socrates. In consequence very little is known about Plato himself, considering
the influence that he has had on the thought of the world. The
name Plato is a nickname, meaning " broad," and was given on
account of his build-broad shoulders and chest. Attaching
himself to Socrates when a youth of twenty, he remained with
him until his master's death, a period of about eight years. The
risk of persecution following the death of Socrates drove Plato
from Athens, and he was nearly forty before he returned.
During this interval he travelled widely, to places as far apart
as Egypt and Sicily. To Sicily he was tempted yet again by
a young king, who had succeeded to the throne and wished to
make the influence of philosophy felt in the practical work of
government. Plato died in the middle of the fourth century,
B.C. The place at Athens where Plato taught was called the
Academy, and is described as having a garden with shady
avenues. Over the porch of his house stood the inscription,
" Let no one ignorant of geometry enter." The best known of
his Dialogues are the Republic and the Apologia Socratis. The
former begins with an investigation into the ideal state, which
introduces the question-what is the best education to produce
the best citizen? and this involves a third question-what is
virtue? The latter is a defence of Socrates. In Plato poetry
and philosophy are most happily combined, and this union gives
a charm to his writings which has won even the opponents of
of his views.
empyreal. Greek, r0p, fire; mrrvpos, fiery. The word is
pronounced as a trisyllable, the second e having a y sound. In
the Paradise Lost Milton uses the same word eleven times, always
as adjective and with the same accent. He uses the substantive
' empyrdan' (four syllables) five times, and 'empyrean' as adjective once only, viz., x. 321:
"The confines met of empyrean heav'n
And of this world."
Tennyson on Milton (in Alcaics):
"Tower, as the deep domed empyrean
Rings to the roar of an angel onset."




62


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


The empyreal sphere was the outermost of a set of spheres of
which the ancients believed the earth to be the centre. These
were seven according to Greek thinkers, nine according to mediaeval theologians. According to Cicero (Somnium Scipionis), this
sphere is inhabited by "that all powerful God who controls the
other spheres." It is a question whether Plato's notion was quite
the same, but he certainly believed that there were actual spheres
of which the earth formed the centre, and that these revolved
round the earth.
24. first good. The allusion is to Plato's 14atu, perfect arche.
types or patterns, of which all earthly qualities were imperfect
representations. Plato held that these had a real existence somewhere, and were not mere abstractions of the mind.
25. his follow'rs. Generally called the Neo-Platonists. Of
these new disciples of Plato, revivers, or rather adapters of his
doctrine six centuries after his death, Plotinus was the most
important. His date is the middle of the third century of the
Christian era. It was said that he was ashamed of having a
body, and would never mention his parents nor his native
country. He would not allow an artist to take his portrait,
saying that nature had veiled us in an image, and it would be
foolish to leave to posterity an image of an image. Plotinus was
probably of Roman origin, perhaps son of a freedman, but born
in Egypt. After many years' study of philosophy, his zeal to
learn the philosophy of the Indians and Persians made him join
a military expedition to the East. On his return from which,
being then about forty years of age, he began to teach philosophy
at Rome, where he soon acquired great influence, His doctrines
are strongly tinged with Eastern mysticism, as for instance that
to which Pope alludes in the next line, "and quitting sense call
imitating God," "and call the quitting of sense an imitation of
God," or more correctly a union with God. Plotinus taught that
man must free himself from his nature by a process which he
called ecstacy (literally, standing out of oneself), and that then
man could grasp the Godhead by intuition. This may be fairly
described as a 'mazy round.'
27. eastern priests. Some say the priests of Baal, the SunGod; others say that Pope referred to the sacred dance of the
Mahometan monks.
34. Newton. Sir Isaac Newton, the most distinguished mathematician and philosopher that the world has yet seen, was born
on Christmas Day, 1642, at Woolsthorpe, near Grantham, in
Lincolnshire. He was educated at the Grantham Grammar
School, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which
college he became a fellow. He died in London, 1727, and
was buried in Westminster Abbey. With a remarkable genius




NOTES.


63


for mathematics, he had at the age of twenty-three made
important discoveries about the movements of the planets
and of comets. Subsequently, and while filling the chair of
Professor of Mathematics in the University of Cambridge, he
discovered the prismatic colours of light, and established the
law of gravitation, which accounts for the fall of an apple to
the ground as well as for the equilibrium of the universe (all
nature's law). Pope wrote an intended epitaph on Newton:
"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, ' let Newton be,' and all was light."
Sir Isaac Newton was a member of the Convention Parliament,
which seated William III. on the throne, and was afterwards
Master of the Royal Mint, as well as President of the Royal
Society. His great works are the Treatise on Optics and the
Principia, the doctrines of which were very quickly accepted by
the learned. Thomson, in the year 1727, wrote:
"Let comprehensive Newton speak thy fame
In all philosophy. "
Pope suggested that this should be expanded, and indeed wrote
in the margin the lines which now stand.-Summer, 1. 1560 (see
Bell's edition):
"Let Newton, pure intelligence, whom God
To mortals lent, to trace His boundless works
From laws sublimely simple, speak thy (England's) fame
In all philosophy."
Thomson also wrote an Elegy to the Memory of Sir Isaac
Newton:
" Whether with angels thou
Sittest in dread discourse or fellow-blest,
Who joy to see the honour of their kind."
It will be observed that this is very different from Pope's idea
of the superior beings, showing a Newton as men might show
an ape, which is not very respectful to Newton. Men do not
show an ape as ' admirable,' but as 'grotesque.'
44. equipage. A common idea about this word, and the cognate verb 'equip,' is that they are connected with the Latin
equus, a horse. Even Milton is misled by the sound. He says:
" Chariots wing'd
From the armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodg'd
Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand,
Celestial equipage."  Paradise Lost, vii. 199-203.
But the real derivation of the word is the French 6quipper, which
is connected with some Teutonic word, which is practically an




64


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


old form of the English word 'ship.' Pope, Rape of the Lock,
i. 45:
" Think what an equipage thou hast in air,
And view with scorn two pages and a chair."
Also, the Spectator, No. 10: "I... would earnestly advise
them for their good to order this paper to be punctually served
up, and to be looked upon as part of the tea equipage."
50. arts. Of all that out of which our vices have made arts.
Of the arts created by man's vices, Gastronomy may be selected
as an example.
58. Ascribe, i.e. we ascribe.
59. acts, for actuates, incites to action. Bishop Lowth in his
English Grammar condemns this use. But there is plenty of
early authority for the use of 'acts' as a transitive verb in this
sense. It is now obsolete. Addison, Spectator, No. 285: " The
ancient criticks, who were acted by a spirit of candour." Barrow,
Sermons: "Most men are greatly tainted with self-love; some
are wholly possessed and acted by it."
/  59-66. Self-love... destroy'd.  The image is taken from the
/ works of a watch. Self-love is the mainspring, the motive power
which makes the watch to go; reason is the regulator which
controls the motion, preventing it from being too quick or too
slow. Without self-love man would not attend to any action;
without reason his action would not be directed towards a definite
end. Without self-love man would be like a plant; without
reason, like a meteor. The whole passage is antithetical, and
certainly halts in parts. Without self-love, would man even
draw nutrition or propagate? Again, self-love rather supplies
the end, reason the means. Lastly, if, like a meteor, man flame
through a real void, he would not meet anything to destroy.
72. Reason's. Reason is weaker as its objects lie at a distance
and in prospect.
78. still, constantly.
81. schoolmen.  Strictly schoolmnen means the philosophic
divines of the middle ages, who combined, in such manner as
they best could, the teachings of ancient philosophy with the
doctrines of the Latin Church. As philosophers they owed
allegiance to Aristotle, whose logic they strained to the utter
most, in order by it to prove the truths of Christianity.
82. More studious to divide than to unite. Bacon, Essay 50,
Of Studies: " If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences
let him study the schoole-men; for they are cymini sectores." i.e.
splitters of cummin seed, one of the least of seeds. The poetic
faculty sees resemblances: the philosophic faculty discerns
differences.




NOTES.


65


98. List. This form is older than enlist, for their putting the
names of soldiers on a list. Johnson gives "List, to enlist,"
but he does not give the verb " enlist" itself.
101. Stoics. See note on 1. 6.
108. Reason the card, but passion is the gale. Reason is that
by which we steer and guide our course; but without the motive
power of passion, the wind upon the sails, the vessel would
remain
"As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean."
As to the actual meaning of the word ' card' there is a slight
difference of opinion. Does it mean the compass or the map?
Dr. Johnson says, "the paper on which the winds are marked
for the mariner's compass." So in Shakspere, Macbeth, I. iii. 17:
" And the very ports they blow;
All the quarters that they know
I' the shipman's card."
Pope in a note on this passage wishes to read " points " instead
of "ports." Spenser, II. vii. 1:
"As pilot well expert in perilous wave
Upon his card and compass firms his eye,
The maisters of his long experiment,
And to them does the steddy helme apply
Bidding his winged vessell fairely forward fly."
It would certainly seem from this passage that the card was
different from the compass. In Bacon, Essay 18: "Let him
carry with him also some card or book describing the country
where he travelleth," the word must mean chart or rather map.
By Johnson's time a chart was distinguished from a map, as it is
in ours, by the fact that it represented only the coasts. Probably card in Pope's time meant either compass or a chart. The
first sense fits this passage best. Card and chart have the same
derivation, the Latin carta; French charte. The German Karte
means a chart, a map, or a card.
109. Compare the thought in Tennyson's In MIemoriam, 96:
"And power was with him in the night,
Which makes the darkness and the light,
And dwells not in the light alone,
But in the darkness and the cloud."
110. Compare the famous passage in Addison's Campaign:
" Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm."
132. Aaron's serpent. See Exodus, vii. 11-12.
E




66


AN ESSAY QN MAN.


[EPISTLE


144. peccant. Derived from the Latin pecco, to sin. Meanings
-(1.) Guilty, criminal:
" From them I will not hide
My judgments, how with mankind I proceed;
As how with peccant angels late they saw."
Paradise Lost, xi. 70.
(2.) Chiefly used by medical writers. Ill-disposed, corrupt,
offensive to the body:
"With laxatives preserve your body sound,
And purge the peccant humours that abound."
Dryden, The Cock and the Fox, 166.
(3.) Also used in a legal sense, equivalent to informal.
148. As heav'n's blest beam turns vinegar more sour. This
idea, as well as part of the passage immediately preceding, is
taken from Bacon's De Calore. Wine, which has little body, or
which contains little spirit, soon becomes sour on exposure to
the air rather than to the sunshine.
150. this weak queen, reason.
159. humours, gout. Humour (Latin humor), literally moisture. The change that has come over the meaning of the word
may be thus explained.   According to ancient theories of
medicine, man had within him four humours: black bile, yellow
bile, blood and phlegm. The mixture of these was called his
temperament, (Latin, tempero, mix.) The Greek was ovyXpdao-s,
hence our idiosyncrasy. If the mixture was in good proportions
the man was said to be good-tempered, or good-humoured. If
one or other humour preponderated, then he was melancholy,
sad (Greek dcXas, black, X6X1q, bile,) or atrabilious, (Latin formwith same meaning,) choleric, violent, (X6X?,) sanguine, hopeful,
or phlegmatic, dull.  Here, however, the word is used in its
literal sense. By early theories of medicine, vital or life-giving
humours (1. 139) were necessary to health, whereas disease was
imputed to the presence in the body of some humour or liquid
that ought not to be there. The doctor's business was to drive
out such humour. Gout is believed to be derived from the Latin
gutta, a drop, through the French, on the fanciful theory, which
Pope apparently adopts, that the disease is caused by an aggravation of the humours. So rheumatism is derived from the Greek
piw, I flow. Cp. Sir William Temple: " He denied himself nothing
that he had a mind to eat or drink, which gave him a body full
of humours, and made his fits of the gout frequent and violent."
The Spectator, No. 115: "Labour or exercise ferments the
humours, casts themn into their proper channels, throws off
redundancies."
a gout. We say the. In Pope's time they said 'an
asthma.'




NOTES.


67


166. sev'ral. Several is connected with the verb sever, which
is from the Latin separo, through the French sevrer, which
language has also the verb sgparer, just as the English has
separate. Se means apart. The word several has the following
meanings: (1) Different; (2) Particular, special; (3) Appropriate;
(4) Disjoined. The meaning here is respective or distinct. So
Coleridge, on Cologne:
" I counted two-and-seventy stenches,
All well-defined and several stinks."
Shakspere, Julius Cesar, in. ii. 247:
"Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal:
To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas."
177. mercury, that is, quicksilver. It expands when heated at
a uniform rate, and is, therefore, used in the thermometer.
189. strainers. The image is from the clearing of a liquid, e.g.
in decanting wine, preventing sediment passing into the decanter.
Spectator, No. 115. "I consider the body as a system of tubes
and glands, or to use a more rustic phrase, a bundle of pipes and
strainers." What meaning has "strained " in the famous line in
the Merchant of Venice? (Iv. i. 177):
" The quality of mercy is not strained."
197. byas, sc. bias. Pope's spelling is very unusual. The
word properly means a weight lodged on one side of a bowl,
which causes it to curve from the straight line. By a metaphor
taken from the game of bowls, it is used to mean anything that
gives a special direction, for instance, to opinions. Dunciad,
i. 170:
"Like bias to the bowl,
Which, as more pond'rous, made its aim more true,
Obliquely waddling to the mark in view."
Shakspere dwells on the illustration, King John, II. i. 279;
"Commodity, the bias of the world
The world, who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even upon even ground;
Till this advantage, this vile-drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this Commodity,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent."
Derivation-French, biais, slanting. This Brachet and Littr4
explain as from Latin bifacem, looking two ways; but the yew
Eng. Dict. says that this is rejected by later Romanic scholars as
phonetically untenable, and that the origin is still unknown.
198. Nero. A name of infamy amongst the Roman Emperors.
His reign began well. Only seventeen, with great personal




68


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


rEPISTLE


advantages, manly beauty, talents, graces, he submitted during
his first years to the moderate counsels of the philosopher Seneca.
But chiefly through the bad influence of his wicked mother, he
fell into ways of licentiousness and vice. He himself descended to
the stage to contend with professional singers. He is said to
have set the city of Rome on fire for his own amusement. He
set on foot a terrible persecution of the Christians. So great
were his cruelties that a revolution ensued, headed by the soldier
noble Galba. Every one deserted Nero, and he at length committed suicide. At his death he was only thirty and a half, yet,
though he was generally hated, it was noticed that flowers were
placed upon his urn. "Pity, the violets on the tyrant's grave."
Titus. A good Roman Emperor, the tenth son of Vespasian. His father, when made emperor, was engaged in the
Jewish War; and Titus, who had already served with distinction
in Britain and Germany, took his place in command of the Roman
army. He distinguished himself as a general in the famous siege
of Jerusalem, A.D. 70. The Arch of Titus at Rome commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem; on it are represented various
Jewish emblems, like the seven-branched candlestick. Titus was
for a time joint emperor with his father, and, later, succeeded
him in the government. He governed well. He was ever ready
to pardon, and desiring, as he said, to keep his hands free from
blood, he took upon himself a priestly office. He did his best to
bring happiness to his people, and on account of his virtues was
called the " delight of the human race." " Recollecting at supper
that he had not in the whole course of the day conferred any
favour on any one, he uttered these memorable and justly commended words, " Perdidi diem," ' I have lost a day'" (Suetonius,
Life of Titus, chap. viii.).
200. Decius. P. Decius Mus, a plebeian consul, who devoted
himself for his country's good at the battle of Vesuvius in the
great Latin War. It was declared that the side would win
which lost its general, and Decius rushed alone upon the ranks
of the Latins.
Curtius, see Dunciad, i. 209:
"Shall I, like Curtius, desperate in my zeal,
O'er head and ears plunge for the commonweal?"
"The legend of the devotion of Mettus Curtius, is one of the
most romantic of its kind. Possibly a flood, or a tempest, or an
earthquake may have caused the formation of a deep pool or rift
in the Forum; but in the imagination of the people this opening
became a gulf, formed by no human power, and which no human
power could avail to fill up. The gods required the sacrifice of
the best. Gold and jewels and precious things were in vain cast
in; at last a noble youth leapt with his horse full armed into the
chasm, and the gods were satisfied, for what better offering has a




NOTES.


69


state to give than the life of her noblest and her bravest? It can
be shown, indeed, that the story is confused with another, not
more genuine, of a much earlier date; but if the fact was false,
the idea at least was true, and will never cease to bear fruit from
generation to generation" (Merivale, General History of Rome,
p. 66).
224. Zembla, Russian. Novaia Semlia, two islands in the
north of Russia, desolate in the extreme, and with no permanent
inhabitants. Notice, that in the English language a b is added
to strengthen the word, as in tremble, from Latin tremulus.
268. sot. Connected with French and provincial German words
that mean a fool. This was the primary meaning of the word.
Shakspere, King Lear, iv. ii. 8:
" Of the loyal service of his son
When I informed him, he called me sot,
And told me I had turned the wrong side out.'
Sot was subsequently applied to a person stupified with drink.
This is its modern sense. It was also used both as a verb transitive and as a verb neuter. Of this usage, the participle besotted
is the only trace retained in modern English. We may note that
sot is in no way cognate with sodden, with which word it is sometimes confounded.
269. The starving chemist in his golden views Supremely blest.
'Chemist' is here employed in the old sense of 'alchemist.'
According to modern English use, the word 'chemist' has two
senses-the man who is conversant with the science of chemistry,
and the man who dispenses and sells drugs. Americans distinguish by calling the latter a druggist. An alchemist was one
who sought to discover a method by which the baser metals
could be transmuted or turned into gold. In the Middle Ages
many men devoted their lives to this search, called also the
search for the Philosopher's Stone. Of course they could not
find it; but in the search they came upon many valuable discoveries, which formed the beginnings of the science of chemistry.
Shakspere, King John, III. i. 99:
"To solemnize this day, the glorious sun
Stays in his course, and plays the alchymist,
Turning with splendour of his precious eye
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold."
The derivation of the root is most uncertain.   The al in
'alchemy' is certainly Arabic; and it is well known that much
knowledge came into Europe in the earlier part of the Middle
Ages through the Arabs in Spain, as algebra, for instance. The
termination is Greek, Xvb6s, juice. Chemistry being regarded as
XVWL'K' (reXVyq), 'the infusory art' (N. E. D.).  The modern
spelling is uncertain between chymist and chemist. The latter




70


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE II.


is considered the better, though the older pronunciation is in
favour of the former. The French for the science curiously
enough is chimie.
279. Scarfs. "Scarf, in the sense of a badge of honour, was
in Pope's day appropriated to doctors of divinity. The Spectator,
No. 21, compares bishops, deans, and archdeacons to generals;
doctors of divinity, and all that wear scarves, to field-officers;
and the rest of the clergy to subalterns. Id., No. 609, complains
of its promiscuous use by young divines after their first degree at
the university, who wish to pass themselves off as doctors of
divinity" (Pattison).  It is interesting to note the different
plurals. Pope says ' scarfs'; Addison, 'scarves.'
garters, the insignia of the famous order of knighthood,
instituted by Edward III. Its motto is, "Honi soit qui mal y
pense."
280. beads. Derived from the Anglo-Saxon bead, a prayer;
hence small balls of glass strung on a thread by means of which
prayers were counted. They are still used for that purpose by
Roman Catholics. The word 'bid' meant to pray before it meant
to command. 'To bid beads' means 'to say prayers.' A bidding
prayer is a special prayer used in some English towns for the
mayor and corporation, or for the authorities of a university. I
bid you God-speed, I bid you good-bye, mean I pray that God
may speed you, that God may be with you. Tennyson, Talking
Oak, stanza 12:
"Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's-pence,
And numbered bead, and shrift,
Bluff Harry broke into the spence
And turned the cowls adrift."
Scott, Marmion, II. xvii. 9:
" When he, for cowl and beads, laid down
The Saxon battle-axe and crown."
Byron, Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte, stanza 8:
"The Spaniard, when the lust of sway
Had lost its quickening spell,
Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell;
A strict accountant of his beads,
A subtle disputant on creeds,
His dotage trifled well."
Compare German beten, to pray; bitten, to ask; bieten, to offer,
our ' bid' at auction.




EPISTLE III.]


NOTES.


71


EPISTLE III.
4. trim.  Here a noun.   So in Milton, On the Morning of
Christ's Nativity, 5:
"Nature in awe to him
Had doffed her gaudy trim."
' Trim' is also used as an adjective and as a verb. It is connected
with an A.S. root meaning seay, in order. Hence the verb to
trim meaning to 'balance a boat.' Spectator, No. 383: "My
old friend after having seated himself and trimmed the boat with
his coachman who... always serves for ballast on these occasions."
From this, also, is derived the sense of changing from side to
side as when we say that a person trims, or that a politician is a
trimmer.  Trim, preserving the same idea, also means to cut
smooth, to remove ragged edges. 2 Samuel, xix. 24: "Mephibosheth had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard."
From this meaning the sense of decoration in dress naturally
follows. Shakspere, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. iv. 164:
"Our youth got me to play the woman's part,
And I was trimmed in Madame Julia's gown."
9. plastic, forming, moulding; Greek, 7r\XaorK6s. Dunciad,
i. 101:
"So watchful Bruin forms, with plastic care,
Each growing lump, and brings it to a bear."
The modern passive use of the word plastic, yielding to the
mould, is not a correct use.
10. The single atoms each to other tend. Pope refers here to
the doctrines held by ancient writers, as Democritus (born 460
B.C.), and Lucretius. Of these doctrines Professor Tyndall spoke
as follows in the address which he delivered as President of the
British Association for the advancement of Science at the Belfast
Meeting in 1874: "It was felt that to construct the universe
in idea, it was necessary to have some notion of its constituent
parts... Thought, no doubt, had long hovered about this doctrine before it attained the precision and completeness which it
assumed in the mind of Democritus.... The principles enunciated
by Democritus reveal his uncompromising antagonism to those
who deduced the phenomena of nature from the caprices of the
gods. They are briefly these: (1) From nothing comes nothing.
Nothing that exists can be destroyed. All changes are due to
the combination and separation of molecules. (2) Nothing happens by chance. Every occurrence has its cause from which it
follows by necessity. (3) The only existing things are the atoms
and empty space; all else is mere opinion. (4) The atoms are
infinite in number, and infinitely various in form; they strike




72


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


together, and the lateral motions and whirlings which then arise
are the beginnings of worlds.  (5) The varieties of all things
depend upon the varieties of their atoms in number, size, and
aggregation. (6) The soul consists of fine smooth round atoms
like those of fire. These are the most mobile of all. They interpenetrate the whole body, and in their motions the phenomena
of life arise.  The first five propositions are a fair general
statement of the atomic philosophy as now held. As regards
the sixth, Democritus made his fine smooth atoms do duty for
the nervous system, whose functions were then unknown. The
atoms of Democritus are individually without sensation; they
combine in obedience to mechanical laws; and not only organic
forms, but the phenomena of sense and thought, are the result of
their combination.
"That great enigma, 'the exquisite adaptation of one part of
an organism to another part, and to the conditions of life,' more
especially the construction of the human body, Democritus made
no attempt to solve. Empedocles, a man of more fiery and poetic
nature, introduced the notion of love and hate among the atoms
to account for their combination and separation. Noticing this
gap in the doctrine of Democritus, he struck in with the penetrating thought, linked, however, with some wild speculation,
that it lay in the very nature of these combinations which were
suited to their ends (in other words, in harmony with their
environment), to maintain themselves, while unfit combinations,
having no proper habitat, must rapidly disappear. Thus more
than 2000 years ago the doctrine of the 'survival of the fittest,'
which, in our day, not on the basis of vague conjecture, but
of positive knowledge, has been raised to such extraordinary
significance, had received at all events partial enunciation."
23. Compare Virgil's AEneid, vi. 726:
"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem et magno se corpore miscet."
30. lawn, from Celtic root, and connected with French lande,
an open space, used with spelling launde by Chaucer in same
sense, Knightes Tale, 833.
33. the linnet pours his throat. The female bird does not sing.
Hence both Gray, Ode to Spring:
" The attic warbler pours her throat";
and Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 603:
"All but the wakeful nightingale
She all night long her amorous descant sung,"
are incorrect. "Note the exquisite refinement by which 'to
pour his note'is raised into 'pour his throat'; any harshness of
the metaphor being subdued by the repetition of the idea in the
next line, 'swell the note"' (Pattison).




NOTES.


73


46. Compare Gay's Fables, " The Man and the Flea ":
"The snail looks round on flower and tree,
And cries, 'All these were made for me!'
'What dignity's in human nature?'
Says man, the most conceited creature,
As from a cliff he casts his eye,
And view'd the sea and arched sky.
The sun was sunk beneath the main;
The moon and all the starry train
Hung the vast vault of Heaven: the man
His contemplation thus began:'When I beheld this glorious show,
And the wide watery world below,
The scaly people of the main,
The beasts that range the wood or plain,
The wing'd inhabitants of air,
The day, the night, the various year,
And know all these by Heaven design'd
As gifts to pleasure human kind,
I cannot raise my worth too high
Of what vast consequence am I?'
' Not of the importance you suppose,'
(Replies a flea upon his nose);
Be humble, learn thyself to scan;
Know, pride was never made for man.
'Tis vanity that swells thy mind.
What Heaven and earth for thee design'd
For thee, made only for our need,
That more important Fleas might feed.' "
50. Let it be granted that man is the intellectual lord.
56. Philomela, classical name for nightingale. The story was
that Philomela, daughter of Pandion, King of Attica, was turned
into a nightingale.
68. favour'd man. Several of the ancients, and many of the
Orientals since, esteemed those who were struck by lightning as
sacred persons, and the particular favourites of heaven (Pope).
This is wrong as regards the opinion of the ancients.  The
Greeks at any rate regarded lightning as the instrument of the
wrath of Jove. Without the note one might have fancied that
Pope meant favoured as not seeing the stroke or feeling the pain.
Thomson, Summer, 1169, speaking of a thunderstorm:
" Guilt hears appall'd, with deeply troubled thought;
And yet, not always on the guilty head
Descends the fated flash."
Pope wrote two epitaphs on a pair of lovers struck dead by




74


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


lightning at Stanton Harcourt, in Oxfordshire. In each there is
the same idea:
(1)
When Eastern lovers feed the fun'ral fire,
On the same pile the faithful pair expire:
Here pitying Heav'n that virtue mutual found,
And blasted both that it might neither wound.
Hearts so sincere th' Almighty saw well pleas'd,
Sent His own lightning and the victims seiz'd."
(2)
"Think not by rig'rous judgment seiz'd,
A pair so faithful could expire;
Victims so pure Heav'n saw well pleas'd,
And snatch'd them in celestial fire."
touch ethereal. So Milton, Sams. Ag., 549:
" With touch ethereal of Heav'n's fiery rod."
72. knowledge of its end. Compare i. 77.
84. Hardly the writing of a very orthodox Catholic.
86. prest. On first reading of this and following lines it looks
as if this word were the participle of verb 'press.' There is a
proverb, "one volunteer is worth three pressed men." In the
great war between England and France at the end of the last
and beginning of this century, when there was a scarcity of
sailors on board the ships of war, press-gangs were sent out in
the seaports to seize the sailors of merchant vessels and fishermen and compel them to serve. Pope however wrote at a time
long before these terrible press-gangs: and it is more likely that
the word is derived from prest money, earnest-money, like the
shilling which the sergeant gives to the recruit. Prcestare
tributum is good Latin for "pay toll."
97. raise, count superior, extol.  Pope even uses it as
"praise."  Epistle to Arbuthnot, 211:
"While wits and Templars ev'ry sentence raise,
And wonder with a foolish face of praise."
98. Reason is God's gift as well as instinct.
99. nations. Thomson, in the Seasons, is very fond of speaking of birds, beasts, fishes, flowers, or insects as nations, people,
race, or tribe. So Prov. xxx. 25-6, "The ants are a people,
not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; the
conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the
rocks."
104. De Moivre. Abraham    De Moivre, an eminent French
mathematician, born in the province of Champagne, in 1667.
He was a French Protestant, and when the Revocation of the




NOTES.


75


Edict of Nantes (1685) made it no longer possible for Protestants
to enjoy liberty of worship, or even personal safety, in their
native land, De Moivre took shelter in London, where he
obtained his living by teaching mathematics, and by answers
to questions relating to chances and annuities. His chief book
is a treatise on the Doctrine of Chances. A well-known modern
writer on mathematics, Mr. Todhunter, says of him: " De
Moivre was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1697. His
portrait, strikingly conspicuous among those of the great chiefs
of science, may be seen in the collection which adorns the walls
of the apartments used for the meetings of the society. It is
recorded that Newton himself, in the later years of his life, used
to reply to inquirers respecting mathematics in these words:
' Go to Mr. De Moivre, he knows these things better than I do.'
In the long list of men ennobled by genius, virtue, and misfortune, who have found an asylum in England, it would be
difficult to name one who has conferred more honour on his
adopted country than De Moivre."-Todhunter, Theory of
Probabilities, chapter ix.
Mr. Todhunter also quotes the following interesting passage
from a contemporary letter to Leibnitz, written in 1710:
"Dominus Moyvrneus, insignis certe Geometra, qui haud dubie
adhuc haeret Londini, luctans, ut audio, cum fame et miseria
quas ut depellat, victum quotidianum ex informationibus adolescentum petere cogitur. 0 duram sortem hominis! et parum
aptam ad excitanda ingenia nobilia; quis non tandem succumberet sub tam iniquse fortunae vexationibus? Vel quodnam
ingenium etiam fervidissimum non algeat tandem? Miror certe
Moyvrseum tantis angustiis pressum ea tamen adhuc prsestare
qune prestat."
105. Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore?   Milton,
Paradise Lost, vii. 423-430:
" There the eagle and the stork
On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosely wing the region, part more wise,
In common, rang'd in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth
Their airy caravan, high over seas
Flying, and over lands with mutual wing
Easing their flight."
Only about twelve species are known of the family ciconidae.
Most of these are migratory, and one of them, at least, the
common stork of Europe, periodically performs very extensive
journeys. Storks frequent marshy places, and feed on eels,
reptiles, young birds, and other mammals. Throughout the
East, and also in several parts of Europe, the stork is protected
by law, and the destruction even of its eggs is punished by




76


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


a heavy fine. This is partly because of its usefulness as a
scavenger, and partly because of the reputation which the
bird has long enjoyed for its affection for its young. The stork
is mentioned, Psalm, civ. 16-17, and Jeremiah, viii. 7. The
stork resorts year after year to the same place, and when it has
once fixed on a locality for its nest, that place will be assuredly
occupied when the breeding season comes round. Thus, says
the Rev. J. G. Wood (Bible Animals, p. 481), "The same home
is kept up by successive generations of storks, much as among
men one ancestral mansion is inhabited by members of the
same family."
bid. Here preterite, more commonly "bade."
108. phalanx. A body of men drawn up for battle in the
deep and compact manner of the Macedonians under Philip and
his successors.
112. mutual, reciprocal. What A feels or does for B, and
B for A.   The common expression, "Our mutual friend,"
though sanctioned by Dickens, who wrote a book with that
title, is incorrect. It should be our common friend.
125. attend. Here a transitive verb. It is more commonly
followed by preposition "to."
127. wander earth, wander over earth. The whole line is in
the absolute construction.
148. state of nature.  The eighteenth century was fond of
talking about the 'state of nature.' J. J. Rousseau won great
applause by the doctrine that the passage from barbarism to
civilization was not a gain to the world.  "God made the
country, and man made the town." Yet if God put into man
instincts that lead him to gregariousness and to civilization, then
civilization and town-life may be in accordance with nature, as
much as being without clothes.
149. Self-love and social at her birth began. Self-love and
social love began at the birth of nature.
154. murder. Thomson, Spring, 358:
" But you, ye flocks,
What have ye done? ye peaceful people, what,
To merit death? you who have given us milk
In luscious streams, and lent us your own coat
Against the Winter's cold?"
Shelley, in his Revolt of Islam, makes his people feed on fruits,
not on slain animals:
" Gore nor poison none
This festal kind pollute."
Thomson and Pope, for the purpose of poetical ornament, not
from real conviction, maintain the vegetarian theory, supported




NOTES.


77


in ancient times by the honoured name of Pythagoras, that man
ought not to eat the flesh of animals. Thomson, curiously
enough, drew the line at fish. In Gay's fable, Pythagoras and
the Clown, the argument is set out.
"The Clown, with surly voice replies,
'Vengeance aloud for justice cries.
This kite, by daily rapine fed,
My hens' annoy, my turkeys' dread,
At length his forfeit life hath paid;
See on the walls his wings display'd.
Here nail'd, a terror to his kind,
My fowls shall future safety find;
My yard the thriving poultry feed,
And my barns' refuse fat the breed.'
Friend,' says the sage, ' the doom is wise:
For public good the murderer dies:
But if these tyrants of the air
Demand a sentence so severe,
Think how the glutton, man, devours,
What bloody feasts regale his hours:
O impudence of power and might,
Thus to condemn a hawk or kite,
When thou, perhaps, carnivorous sinner,
Hadst pullets yesterday for dinner.'
' Hold,' cried the clown, with passion heated,
' Shall kites and men alike be treated?
When Heaven the world with creatures stored,
Man was ordained their sovereign lord.'
'Thus tyrants boast,' the sage replied,
Whose murders spring from power and pride.
Own then this manlike kite is slain
Thy greater luxury to sustain.'"
160. prerogatives, peculiar or exclusive rights. The word
prerogative, which is the Latin, prcerogativa (asked first), was
applied as a title to the tribe which had the right of giving its
vote before the others-an important privilege, considering how
often human actions resemble sheep going through a gap, or the
schoolboy game of " Follow my leader."
174. physic. Here in our modern sense, medicine. Greek,
i6bOs, nature. Physics, the study of nature. Physic, medicine,
is that which puts nature right.
177. Learn of the little nautilus to sail. The Rev. J. G.
Wood states (Nrature Teachings, chap. I.) that "there is just as
much likelihood of seeing a mermaid curl her hair as of witnessing
a nautilus under sail." He goes on to tell us that the creature
which does sail is the velella, a kind of jelly-fish, which is fur



78


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


nished with a sort of skeleton consisting of two thin horny
plates, arranged so as to suggest the idea of a raft propelled by a
sail.
183. policies. A modern would say polities, which form is
nearer the Greek IroXTreta.
186. anarchy. Here used in its literal sense of absence of
government, without the connotation of lawlessness now generally conveyed by that word.
193. There is an old proverb, "Summum jus, summa injuria."
There are cases in which the insisting upon strictly legal rights
is a positive moral wrong. Cicero quotes it, De Officiis, I. x.
197. instinct. See Darwin, Descent of Man, Part I., chaps.
ii. and iii.
231. steady. The allusion is to the rays of light broken by a
prism.  Mr. Ward quotes from Bacon's Instauratio Magna:
"For however men may amuse themselves, and admire, or almost
adore the mind, it is certain that, like an irregular glass, it alters
the rays of things by its figure and different intersections."
236. right divine. Allusion to the doctrine of the divine right
of kings, the favourite doctrine of the extreme royalists of the
seventeenth century. So Dunciad, iv. 188:
"The right divine of kings to govern wrong."
242. enormous. The two next lines explain the word. Out of
all rule. Latin e and norma, rule. In this sense we generally
now use 'abnormal.'
many made for one. So Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity,
r. x. 5: "At the first, it may be, that all was permitted unto
their discretion which were to rule, till they saw that to live by
one man's will became the cause of all men's misery. This constrained them to come unto laws."
256. her. Refers to 'superstition' (246).
260. And such as tyrants would believe in, because they are
formed like tyrants. If English had case endings, 'formed'
would be accusative.
265. flamen, a Latin word for a priest attached to the worship
of a particular deity; probably, however, Pope used the word
generally.  The duty of the flamen was to keep the sacrifice
alight. The word is connected with Latin flare, to blow.
living means ' animal food.' Here, as in 157 ("The shrine
with gore unstained"), Pope seems to hold the theory that the
first sacrifices were bloodless, i.e. the fruits of the earth were
offered.




NOTES.


79


266. Compare Milton, Paradise Lost, i. 392:
"First, Moloch, horrid king, besmear'd with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;
Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud
Their children's cries unheard, that past through fire
To his grim idol."
268. The image is derived from the old engines of war, such as
the catapult, which threw stones. The Flamen made an engine
of his god, and assailed his foes by threatening them with chastisement from heaven (Elwin).
286. moral. Here a noun meaning morals or morality. Cp.
the French morale.
306. Guizot says: "' I prefer a bad action to a bad principle,'
says Rousseau, somewhere; and Rousseau was right. A bad
action may remain isolated; a bad principle is always prolific,
because, after all, it is the mind which governs, and man acts
according to his thoughts much oftener than he himself
imagines."
EPISTLE IV.
3. still, in the old sense, 'ever, always.' That something
which is always prompting us to sigh. Notice Pope changes
from a person to a thing.
4. dare to die, martyrdom in the hope of eternal happiness.
6. O'erlook'd, something overlooked and sometimes magnified
in imagination both by the fool and by the wise.
7. Plant. Pope "begins his address to Happiness after the
manner of the ancient hymns by enumerating the titles and
various places of abode of this goddess.  He has undoubtedly
personified her at the beginning, but seems to have dropped
that idea in the seventh line, where the deity is suddenly transformed into a plant; from thence this metaphor of a vegetable is
carried on distinctly through the eleven succeeding lines, till he
suddenly returns to consider Happiness again as a person, in
the eighteenth line" (Warton).
8. mortal soil. The epithet is important. Where amongst
human beings?
9. Are courtiers happy? or are the wealthy?
shine. This noun is used by Spenser, Shakspere, and
Milton. Johnson in his Dictionary: " It is a word, though not
unanalogical, yet ungraceful, and little used." Nobody, however,
quarrels with it in composition-sunshine, moonshine.




80


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


10. flaming. Fault has been found with this epithet. Elwin
says: "The line calls up a false idea of splendour, and not a
vision of subterranean gloom and desolation." The epithet is
characteristic of the classical school of poetry. No effort is made
to be true to nature, but as the cut diamond flames in a lady's
head-dress, so the mine that is full of diamonds must also flame.
11. Is happiness due to literary or to military glory?
12. iron. This is an essential epithet. Omit it and the harvests are ordinary harvests, and no longer battles. It is hypercritical to say that sickles as well as swords are made of iron.
13. where grows    Answering his own question of five lines
before.
15. sincere. The origin of the word is doubtful, the usual
explanation being from Latin sine cera, without wax. It is more
likely that the first syllable is the same as that of 'single'
(singuli), 'simple' (simplex), and the second may be cernere, to
separate; or serere, to join. Pope does not here use the word in
our modern sense of 'honest,' 'candid,' but in the older sense of
'pure,' 'unmingled,' without any moral meaning attached to it.
Johnson quotes: "In English, I would have all Gallicisms
avoided, that our tongue may be sincere, and that we may keep
to our own language."
18. 'Happy as a king' is a proverbial saying, the truth of
which Pope disputes. Bolingbroke was not a happy man, being
"notoriously a prey to factious rancour and the pangs of disappointed ambition " (Elwin).
19. blind; or rather they differ in their views of happiness
and of the way to attain it.
20. As philanthropists or as hermits.
21. in action, Epicureans. in ease, Stoics (Pope).  It would
have been better if the poet had not added these brief notes, for
they are misleading. See note on these schools of philosophers
at ii. 6. The Epicureans did not place happiness 'in action,' but
rather the opposite; nor did the Stoics place it 'in ease,' but in
ascetic virtue.
23. in pain. Epicureans (Pope).
24. virtue vain. Stoics (Pope).
26. doubt of all. Sceptics (Pope); that is, the philosophical
set so called, also known as Pyrrhonists, after their founder
Pyrrho.
28. happiness is happiness. Pope has sacrificed truth to epigram. "The Stoics and Sceptics placed the supreme good in
unconditional virtue, and the Epicureans taught the precise
doctrine of Pope himself, that pleasurejis the goal, and virtue the
_road" (Elwin).          'a        ' u      -~-..a —




NOTES.


81


29. mad opinion, fancied happiness, fashion; what we now
call conventionality.
31. her goods, nature's blessings.
34. common sense. "(1) An internal sense which was regarded
as the common bond or centre of the five senses.-Obs. (2) The
endowment of natural intelligence possessed by rational beings;
the plain wisdom which is every man's inheritance. (This is
' common sense' at its minimum, without which a man is foolish
or insane.) More emphatically: good, sound practical sense;
combined tact and readiness in dealing with the everyday affairs
of life. 'There is not,' said a shrewd wag, 'a more uncommon
thing in the world than common sense.... By common sense
we usually and justly understand the faculty to discern one thing
from another, and the ordinary ability to keep ourselves from
being imposed upon by gross contradictions, palpable inconsistencies, and unmasked imposture. By a man of common sense
we mean one who knows, as we say, chalk from cheese'" (New
Eng. Dict.). The quotation is from a book published eight years
before this Epistle of the Essay on Man.
37. What we justly call happiness.
40. "The image is drawn from a person leaning towards
another, and listening to what he says" (Elwin).
kind, sc. mankind, the species as opposed to the "individuals" of the previous line. 'Kind' and 'kin' are connected.
Compare Hamlet's famous play on the words:
"A little more than kin, and less than kind " (I. ii. 65).
42. Even the hermit in his cave is not satisfied with his own
approval, but seeks the admiration of others.
49. Order is heav'n's first law.  One of the aphorisms in the
Essay on Man most frequently quoted.
52. shocks, clashes with, goes against; the proper meaning of
to 'shock,' shake violently.
56. This is the key. 6K rWv &taf~ep6vrwv KaXXt\i-r apitovia. In
63, 4, Pope says that if all had the same gifts there would be
discord, not harmony.
57. Condition, circumstance, rank and wealth.
59. In who. Notice the omitted antecedent.
66. externals, what Aristotle calls rd 9KTOs tiyaOa.
70. in hope, the poor and humble, in hope to rise.
in fear, the rich and powerful lest they should fall. " The
exemplification of this truth by a view of the equality of happiness in the several particular stations of life, was designed for
the subject of a future epistle" (Pope). This future epistle, it
may be added, was never written. Had Pope attempted it, he




.


82                AN ESSAY ON MAN.                 [EPISTLE
would hardly have kept up the idea that the happiness of one
class is maintained by hope, whilst that of a class more fortunate
in this world's goods is tempered by fear. Perhaps he would
rather have adopted the line of argument of Burns in the Twa
Dogs.
73. rise. "He had in his mind Virgil's description, borrowed
from Homer, of the attempt made by the giants in their war
against the gods, to scale the heavens by heaping Ossa upon
Pelion, and Olympus upon Ossa. Pope took the expressions
' sons of earth,' and 'mountains piled on mountains,' from Dryden's translation, Georg. i. 374" (Elwin). The passage in Homer
is Odyssey, xi. 315, and in Virgil, Georg. i. 281.
75. still. Notice the repetition. The reference is to Psalms,
ii. 4.
78. mere mankind, mere (Lat. merus, pure) means only; to
men simply as men.
81. temperance (Lat. temperantia, moderation, self-control),
not in Pope's day limited to moderation in the use of intoxicating drink, though no doubt including that.
84. these, sc. the bad, the latter.
worse, in a worse way, by worse means.
86, that, antecedent ' those' omitted.
92. want, do without.
to pass for good; the height of wickedness, to have all the
advantages of vice and a reputation for virtue.
94. Who fancy. Antecedent omitted.
bliss to vice, sc. allotted, assigned.
97. But it is the fool who calls the good, and only the good,
unhappy, when an accident happens to a good man that might
have happened to any man.
99. Falkland. Lucius Cary, Lord Falkland, was one of the
finest spirits in the Long Parliament. A true patriot, at first he
was in favour of the reforms proposed; but when the war broke
out he drew his sword on behalf of the king, but was miserably
unhappy because of the Civil War. Sitting among his friends
after a long silence, he would, " with a shrill and sad accent,
ingeminate the word, 'Peace, peace,"' and say "that the very
agony of the war, and the view of the calamities and desolation
the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him, and
would shortly break his heart." At the first battle of'Newbury
he fell. On the morning of the battle he dressed with unusual
care, saying, " he was weary of his country's misery, and believed
he should be out of it before night." It was his friend, Edward




NOTES.


83


Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, who wrote of him, " A loss
which no time will suffer to be forgotten, and no success or good
fortune could repair." It should be remembered that Falkland
was only thirty-three when he was killed.
100. Turenne. Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de
Turenne (1611-1675), a great French general, first during the
last period of the Thirty Years' War, then under Louis XIV. in
various wars of aggression. Why does Pope call him " god-like"?
He takes the view of the French eulogies written amid the consternation caused by his death. Also Turenne, at the age of
fifty-seven, was converted to the Roman Catholic religion, Pope's
religion. " Turenne's fame rests on his military achievements;
as a man he was not more distinguished for his virtues than the
Duke of Marlborough, whom in many respects he resembled.
He had, indeed, the calmness of all philosophic, cold-minded
temperaments, but few other praiseworthy qualities " (H. Morse
Stephens in the Encycl. Brit.).
101. Sidney, Sir Philip, courtier, ambassador, poet, romancist,
critic, soldier; born at Penshurst in Kent, had his Christian
name after King Philip, then lately married to Queen Mary.
He died, aged nearly thirty-two, from wounds received at Zutphen. Elizabeth called him "the jewel of her times." He was
offered the crown of Poland. He lives in literature as the friend
of Spenser, through his sonnets, Astrophel and Stella, and
through his prose writings, The Arcadia, and An Apologie for
Poetrie (afterwards labelled "The Defence of Poesy").
104. Digby. The Hon. Robert Digby, son of Lord Digby, who
died, aged 40, in 1726, eight years before the publication of this
Epistle. Pope wrote his epitaph in the Church of Sherborne,
Dorsetshire:
"Go! fair example of untainted youth,
Of modest wisdom, and pacific truth:
Compos'd in suffrings, and in joy sedate,
Good without noise, without pretension great.
Just of thy word, in ev'ry thought sincere,
Who knew no wish but what the world might hear.
Of softest manners, unaffected mind,
Lover of peace, and friend of human kind:
Go live! for Heav'n's eternal year is thine,
Go, and exalt thy moral to divine."
The sire, Lord Digby, was seventy-four when this poemr was published, and lived eighteen years longer.
107. Marseilles' good bishop. The plague raged at Marseilles
from May, 1720, for twelve months, ending thirteen years before
the publication of this Epistle. M. de Belsunce was the bishop
who displayed great courage and devotion.




84


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


108. When nature, etc. "This is a verse of a marvellous
comprehension and expressiveness.  The direfulness of this
pestilence is more emphatically set forth in these few words than
in forty such odes as Sprat's on the plague at Athens" (Warton).
110. a parent. Pope's mother died in June, 1733. She was
then ninety-one.
112. Nature deviating from its course produces physical evil;
the wandering of the will produces moral evil.
114. That which is evil to a part is for the good of the whole,
or else change admits evil, or else nature permits it to occur;
but the last case seldom happened until man interfered. The
"improved" is ironical.
120. When the disease was inherited from his vicious father.
121. th' Eternal Cause, God.
123. sage. The allusion is to him
who, to be deem'd
A god, leap'd fondly into,Etna flames,
Empedocles.       Milton, Paradise Lost, iii. 470.
It would seem, however, as if this legend were somehow confused
with the story of Pliny, the naturalist, who, during an eruption,
approached too close to Vesuvius. Pope had originally written:
"T' explore Vesuvius if great Pliny aims,
Shall the loud mountain call back all its flames?"
126. Bethel. Hugh Bethel, a Yorkshire country gentleman
and a friend of Pope's. He suffered badly from asthma, which
is much aggravated by sea-sickness. He lived for fourteen years
after this compliment to his blamelessness.
128. you. Bolingbroke, to whom the epistle is addressed, not
Bethel, of whom the poet has used " thy" two lines previous.
130. Chartres. Col. Francis Chartres, a man infamous for all
manner of vices, who had died three years earlier. Pope's friend,
Dr. Arbuthnot, wrote an epitaph on him which begins:
HERE CONTINUETH TO ROT
THE BODY OF FRANCIS CHARTRES,
WHO, WITH AN INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY
AND INIMITABLE UNIFORMITY OF LIFE,
PERSISTED,
IN SPITE OF AGE AND INFIRMITIES,
IN THE PRACTICE OF EVERY HUMAN VICE,
EXCEPTING PRODIGALITY AND HYPOCRISY:
HIS INSATIABLE AVARICE EXEMPTED HIM FROM THE FIRST,
HIS MATCHLESS IMPUDENCE FROM THE SECOND.
137. Calvin (1509-64), one of the leading Reformers.




NOTES.


85


140. Undue compression has given an unsatisfactory line. If
Calvin feel heaven's blessing, the party of his followers cries that
there is a God: his opponents that there is none. If he feel
heaven's rod, the cries are reversed.
146. made for Caesar. A quotation from Addison's Cato which,
though first produced twenty-one years before, still held the
stage.
" This world was made for Caesar " (v. i.).
Titus. See note ii. 198.
147. who chain'd his country, Julius Caesar.
151. That, sc. bread.
152. knave, originally like German knabe, boy, a servant.
Here its modern meaning, villain, bad man.
154. As a sailor in the Royal Navy or as a pearl-diver.
161. external, sc. rewards.
for internal, sc. merits.
171. a gown. This may refer to the gown of a University
degree, or, as in 197, to the preacher's gown.
172. its great cure, a crown. "This sarcasm was directed
against George II. When Prince of Wales he quarrelled with
his father and patronized the opposition. On his accession to
the throne (1727) he abandoned the opposition to which Pope's
friends belonged, and retained the ministers of George I."
(especially Sir Robert Walpole).-Elwin.     "Johnson, after
justly censuring him (Pope) for having 'nursed in his mind a
foolish disesteem of kings,' tells us, 'yet a little regard shown
him by the Prince of Wales (sc. Frederick, son of George II.)
melted his obduracy; and he had not much to say when he was
asked by his royal highness how he could love a prince when he
disliked kings?' The answer which Pope made was, ' The young
lion is harmless, and even playful, but when his claws are full
grown he becomes cruel, dreadful, and mischievous "' (Boswell's
Life of Johnson, vol. viii., p. 19).
175. boy and man, sc. the conjunction of the two; that is why
the verb is in the singular.
an, sc. one.
177. Indian, sc. North American Indian. Compare Ep. i.,
99-112, especially for dog, the last line.
192. wants, sc. has not got.
194. Act well your part. This couplet, and especially these four
words, is a common quotation.
there, sc. in acting the part well.




86


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


196. flaunts, flutters. Johnson said these words might with
more propriety have changed their places: to which answer was
made that the interchange of terms aggravated the satire. The
reader must judge for himself whether the objection holds. It
is easy to see that flutter properly goes with " rags" and flaunt
with the stiff "brocade."
brocade, lit. "bossed stuff," from the Spanish. A textile
fabric woven with a pattern of raised figures, originally in gold
or silver; in later use, any kind of stuff richly wrought or
flowered with a raised pattern (N. E. D.).
199. cowl. Classical Latin cucullus means the hood of a cloak;
but the cowl is a garment with a hood worn by monks, not the
hood only. It has the permanent characteristic of covering the
head and shoulders, and being without sleeves" (see N. E. D.).
Cowl is often used for the monk. Cp. Tennyson, Talking Oak, 12:
"Bluff Harry broke into the spence
And turned the cowls adrift."
Cowl used to be pronounced cool.
201. acts the monk. " He alluded to Philip V. of Spain, who
resigned his crown to his son, Jan. 10th, 1724, and retired to
a monastery (like his great predecessor, Charles V.). The son
died in August, and on September 5, 1724, Philip re-ascended
the throne.  Weak-minded, hard-hearted, superstitious, and
melancholy-mad, he was a just instance of a man who owed all
his consideration to the trappings of royalty" (Elwin). It may
be added this grandson of Louis XIV. was one of "the pair of
louts," as Lord Peterborough called them, about whose right to
the throne of Spain the " War of the Spanish Succession" was
waged early in the century. Philip lived and reigned for a dozen
years after this compliment was paid to him by Pope, and
was only sixty-three when he died.
204. prunella.  "Prunello, a kind of stuff of which the clergymen's gowns are made" (Johnson's Dictionary). He then quotes
this passage with the spelling' prunello.' Preaching in the surplice
is now so common that it may be worth while to remark that in
Pope's days, and for a century after, preachers always wore
gowns.   The name of the woollen stuff comes from its dark,
sloe-like colour. Fr. prunelle, properly a diminutive of prune,
a plum.
205. strings, sc. the ribb6ns of various orders. Fr. cordon.
The use of the word is contemptuous.
206. That, here the demonstrative. The allusion is to the
influence of the mistresses of George II., or perhaps of those
of his father.




NOTES.


209. Not a false rhyme, but a French pronunciation, the
expression being borrowed from Boileau, Sat. v. 85, 6:
"Et si leur sang tout pur, ainsi que leur noblesse,
Est passe jusqu'a vous de Lucrece en Lucrece."
Lucretia is taken as the type of the virtuous woman.
212. since the flood. Cp. Tennyson, Aylmer's Field, 381:
" These old pheasant-lords,
These partridge-breeders of a thousand years,
Who had mildewed in their thousands, doing nothing
Since Egbert-why, the greater their disgrace!
Fall back upon a name! rest, rot in that!
Not keep it noble, make it nobler? fools,
With such a vantage-ground for nobleness."
216. Howards, a noble English family, of which the Dulke of
Norfolk is the head.
220. Macedonia's madman, Alexander the Great. Pope's view
of Alexander of Macedon is not historical.   He had nobl;
ambitions; and the qualities with which he sought to fulfil his
purpose were great. Cp. i. 160, "Young Ammon," "to scourge
mankind."   " Charles XII. deserved not to be joined with him.
Charles XII. tore out the leaf in which Boileau had cenaure
Alexander" (Warton). The Swede is of course Charles X'I.
See Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes, 191-222. Charles had
only been dead sixteen years, and Voltaire's Histoire de COharle.
XII. had been published only three. Everybody was reading the
brilliant little book.
224. A line frequently condemned for its vulgarity.
225. No less alike. The politic are like each other, just as
much as the heroes are the same (219).
226. sly slow. Cp. Shakspere, Richard II. I. iii. 150:
"The sly slow hours shall not determinate
The dateless limit of thy dear exile."
The 2nd folio reads "flye slow," and Pope in his edition of
Shakspere (1725) "fly-slow," sc. that fly slowly, but the received
reading is better.
circumspective, not a common word,-glancing round.
235. Aurelius, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius (A.D. 161-180),
the purest and greatest of all the Roman emperors.
reign, bleed. "Bleed seems as improperly said of the death
of Socrates (who died of drinking hemlock) as reign of Marcus
Aurelius.  The Romans down to a very late period were
scrupulous in avoiding applying the terms rex, regnare, etc., to
the emperors " (Pattison).
240. my Lord, Bolingbroke.




88


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


240. Tully, M. Tullius Cicero.
244. Eugene. "Eugenio von Savoye," as he used to sign
himself-with an Italian Christian name, a German particle, and
a French surname. He was Italian by origin, born and educated
in France, and an Austrian general. He had offered his sword to
Louis IV., who laughed at him and called him the little abbe.
It will be remembered that Sir Roger de Coverley always called
the general Prince Eugenio (Spectator, No. 269). He shared with
Marlborough the glory of Blenheim, and after the conclusion of
the War of the Spanish Succession by the Peace of Utrecht, won
fresh laurels by beating the Turks. In the year when Pope
wrote he was certainly living, and in the year of the publication
of this Epistle commanded an Austrian army in the War of the
Polish Succession, though in his 71st year. He died two years
later, in 1736.
246. Rubicon, a small river separating Cisalpine Gaul from
Italy. When Julius Caesar crossed it with his army, he had left
his own province (Gaul), and become an invader of Italy.
Rhine. Eugene was commanding an army on the Rhine
when Pope wrote.
247. A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod. Two wholly different
c-lanations have been given. Elwin's: "Wise men are light as
fe'- Lers, a chief is a scourge of his kind." Pattison's: "A wit
is his own quill pen, a chief is merely a field-marshal's baton."
The latter is probably right.
252. hung on high, as a criminal on a gibbet. Cf. Tennyson's
Rizpah. The bodies used to poison the air. Elwin thinks the
reference is specially to the treatment of the bodies of Cromwell
and other regicides.
25 6. huzzas. Notice the pronunciation as if ' huzzays!'
257. Marcellus. M. Claudius Marcellus, a friend of Cicero's,
was on Pompey's side and opposed to Caesar. After that the
battle of Pharsalia had decided the contest in favour of Caesar,
Marcellus retired to a kind of honourable exile in Mytilene,
studying philosophy. Pope is said to have meant by Marcellus
the Duke of Ormond, and by Caesar, Sir Robert Walpole.
Ormond was in exile. Shortly after the accession of George I.,
the leaders of the Tory party were impeached for their share in
the Peace of Utrecht.  Bolingbroke and Ormond fled.  Harley,
Earl of Oxford, stood his ground. The story goes that Ormond
took leave of his colleague with the words, "Farewell, Oxford
without a head," to which the reply came at once, "Farewell,
Duke without a duchy." Pope here gives Ormond praise that he
did not deserve, because Pope and his friend Bolingbroke
naturally sympathized with Ormond in exile.
259. parts, abilities.




NOTES.


89


260. you, Bolingbroke.
261. how little, the teaching of Socrates.
264. With no one to support you, and no one capable of
valuing your efforts.
265. truths, the doctrines of the Patriot King.
267. Painful pre-eminence. A quotation from Addison's Cato,
II. v.  On the word 'pre-eminence,' see Matthew Arnold's
Lectures on Translating Homer.
277. ribbons. The spelling 'riband' is because of a fancied
connection with 'band.' The word is of Celtic origin.
278. Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. Lord Shadow is probably not
intended for any special person. 'Sir Billy' is William Yonge,
at whom Pope gives many a shrewd thrust.    He was made
Knight of the Bath when the order was revived.   "A man
whose fluency and readiness of speech amounted to a fault,... of
whom Sir Robert Walpole said that nothing but Yonge's character would keep down his parts, and nothing but his parts
support his character " (Lord Stanhope).
280. Gripus. There is no doubt that Pope meant the Duke of
Marlborough, who had died a dozen years previously. Much of
the passage that follows applies to Marlborough: ambition (285),
enormous fame (307), ruining kings (289), betrayal of James II.;
betraying queens (289), intrigue with Duchess of Cleveland;
Europe's laurels (295), Blenheim, etc.; plundered provinces (298);
wealth ill fated (299), Marlborough notorious for avarice; imperious wife (302), Duchess of Marlborough; evening to the day
(306). Cp. Johnson, Vanity of Human Wishes, 317:
"From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow."
The attack was at first more direct. Line 286 originally stood
"In one man's fortune, mark and scorn them all."
But there is evidence that Pope took a present of ~1000 from the
Duchess of Marlborough to suppress the passage about herself in
Moral Essays, ii., under the name of Atossa, as well as any
attacks upon her husband. Then Pope altered this passage, and
veiled its points with the words, "From ancient story." Mr.
Courthope (Elwin and Courthope's edition, vol. iii., p. 87) gives an
altered version of this passage with the attack on Marlborough
restored. A page of the Essay, with corrections in Pope's handwriting, given in facsimile by Mr. Courthope, was found amongst
Bishop Warburton's papers. Pope had probably corrected it as
that of the earlier version stood, that Warburton might know
what it was like. There is no evidence that Pope meant to
publish it.
281. Bacon. Francis Bacon (1560-1626) often, but erroneously,
called Lord Bacon, as by Pope in " The Design," p. 1. Lord




90


AN ESSAY ON MAN.


[EPISTLE


Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, were his titles. Pope's fondness
for antithesis carries him much too far in calling Bacon the
" meanest of mankind. " It is of course " a vile antithesis." The
charge of meanness rests on two matters, his treatment of Essex
and venality as chancellor.  In the former case he was not
generous, but when acknowledging Essex's kindness he had
expressly reserved his duty to the sovereign; in the latter,
though undoubtedly wrong, he claimed that in delivering judgment he never was influenced by a bribe. Receiving presents
from suitors was a bad custom of the time.
284. Cromwell. Pope takes the view of Cromwell that was
common in his time. As a Roman Catholic he would naturally
be disposed to be hostile to him, and to take the view adopted
by Bossuet in his famous funeral oration ou Henrietta of France,
the Queen of Great Britain, viz., that Cromwell was a hypocrite
and base. At the same time it must be remembered that between the death of Milton and the publication of Carlyle's
work, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, there were but few who
did not hold that view.
292. proud Venice. When Pope wrote, Venice was still an
independent republic, though the former splendour had gone.
The poet ought not to have sneered at the humble origin of
Venice.
303. trophied arches, arches covered with trophies of victory.
storied halls. Milton, II Pens., 159:
"And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light."
Here it means that the halls are hung with tapestry or pictures
that tell the stories of victory.
311. stands still. Probably the idea is of a sphere rotating
on its axis, and the axis alone keeping still.
314. Is blest, etc. Shakspere, Merchant of Venice, Iv. i. 179:
" It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
314-8. Mr. J. B. Mayor quotes this passage as a specimen of
Pope's incorrect style. " There is no subject to the verbs. What
is it which is 'attended with no pain'?  What is 'without
satiety'?  What is ' more distressed'?  In the second line
'joy unequalled' is in the absolute construction; 'it' is
merit; but we cannot speak of merit, scarcely of joy as
'attended with no pain'; the phrase is properly applicable
only to 'loss,' understood from the verb 'lose' which precedes." Surely this is somewhat hypercritical, and of a piece
with many of the comments made on Pope. This is the meaning,
' where alone merit receives constant reward and is twice




NOTES.


91


blessed.' The joy is unequalled, if merit receives its final
reward, i.e. immortality, and if merit loses this reward and
is annihilated, it is attended with, or suffers, no pain. Merit is
free from satiety, however much it is blessed, and merit is
really happier as it is distressed with the woes of others.
323. Never elated. Mr. Ruskin praises highly the sentiment
of this and the following verse. Mr. Leslie Stephen says, " It
is impressive, but it is quite impossible to discover by the rules
of grammatical construction who is to be never elated and
depressed." No one is to be. Pope says that merit is.
330. The bad, the good, viz., the bad man, the good man.
332. Almost a hackneyed quotation.
336. But touches, which does not touch.
347. other kind, the animal creation, other than mankind.
The argument is that man has an instinct for immortality.
350. "His greatest virtue" is benevolence; "his greatest
bliss," the hope of a happy eternity. Nature connects the two,
for the bliss depends on the virtue.
364. This famous illustration was before used by Chaucer,
House of Fame, ii. 280:
" if that thou
Throwe on water now a stoon,
Wel wost thou, hit will make anoon
A litel roundel as a cercle,
Paraventure brood as a covercle;
And right anoon thou shalt see weel,
That wheel wol cause another wheel,
And that the thridde, and so forth, brother,
Every cercle causing other
Wyder than himselve was."
Pope had modernized this very poem of Chaucer's. In his
version the passage is 436-441.
373. my friend. Bolingbroke.
378. It is a question whether Bolingbroke deserves this praise.
380. An often quoted line.
388. An unfulfilled prophecy.
391. tuneful art, poetry.




INDEX TO NOTES.


abus'd, ii. 14.
acts (trans.), II. 59.
agonize, I. 198.
Alexander, iv. 220.
alliteration, I. 276.
Ammon, I. 160.
anarchy, II. 186.
Apis, I. 64.
argument, I. 1.
atoms, I. 89, III. 10.
Aurelius (Marcus), iv. 235.
Bacon, I. 1, iv. 281.
barrier, I. 223.
beads, II. 280.
Bethel, xv. 126.
bias, II. 197.
blest, I. 96.
Borgia, I. 156.
brocade, Iv. 196.
candid, I. 15.
canopy, I. 140.
card, II. 108.
Catiline, I. 156.
chain of being, I. 237.
Chartres, rv. 130.
chemist, II. 269.
circle (v.), I. 26.
common sense, iv. 34.
compensated, I. 181.
covert, I. 10.
cowl, Iv. 199.


Cromwell, Iv. 284.
curtain, I. 212.
Curtius, II. 200.
Decius, II. 200.
De Moivre, III. 104.
Digby, Iv. 104.
dog, I. 112.
Egypt's God, I. 64.
empyreal, II. 23.
enormous, IrI. 242
equals, I. 279.
equipage, Ix. 44.
Eugene, IV. 244.
expatiate, I. 5.
Falkland, Iv. 99.
fault, I. 69.
field sports, I. 10.
first good, II. 24.
flamen, III. 265.
frame (work), I. 29.
garters, II. 279.
Gripus, rv. 280.
grov'ling, I. 221.
gust, I. 117.
hair as heart, I. 276.
Heav'n, I. 86.
humours, II. 159.


92




INDEX TO NOTES.


93


kings, iv. 172.
know thyself, II. 1.
learn, in. 30.
lightning, in. 68.
linnet, II. 33.
lioness, I. 213.
list (v.), II. 98.
Marcellus, Iv. 257.
Marlborough, iv. 280.
Marseilles, IV. 107.
maze, I. 6.
microscopic, I. 193.
moral (n.), II. 286.
music of spheres, I. 202.
mutual, in. 112.
nations, IIn. 99.
nature, state of, ii. 148.
nature's thunder, I. 201.
nautilus, II. 177.
Neo-Platonists, IT. 25.
Nero, II. 198.
Newton, Ii. 34.
nice, i. 219.
optics, I. 195.
Ormond, IV. 257.
peccant, II. 144.
people stars, I. 27.
phalanx, inI. 108.
Philomela, II. 54.
plastic, in. 9.
Plato, II. 23.
prerogative, in. 160.


prest, in. 86.
prunella, iv. 204.
purling, I. 204.
quick, I. 234.
rapt, I. 278.
Rubicon, Iv. 246.
satellites, I. 42.
scarfs, II. 279.
sceptic, II. 5.
schoolmen, II. 81.
secure, I. 286.
seraph, I. 110.
sev'ral, II. 166.
Sidney, iv. 101.
sincere, Iv. 15.
sot, II. 268.
stars, I. 27.
Stoic, II. 6.
stork, in. 105.
strainers, ii. 189.
swine (sing.), I. 221.
Time (old), II. 22.
Titus, II. 198.
trim, III. 4.
Turenne, iv. 100.
vegetarianism, II. 154.
Venice, Iv. 292.
vinegar, II. 148.
wind, I. 100.
Zembla, II. 224.


GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO,




.1                                                                                                                                                                                          I                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     A
ii
I
i
I
11I
I
1




MACMILLAN'S ENGLISH CLASSICS.
The following Volumes, Globe 8vo, are ready or in preparation.
ADDISON-SELECTIONSFROMTHESPECTATOR. By K. DEIGHTON. 2s.6d.
ADDISON and STEELE-COVERLEY PAPERS FROM THE SPECTATOR.
By K. DEIGHTON. Is. 9d.
ARNOLD-SELECTIONS. By G. C. MACAULAY. 2s. 6d.
BACON-ESSAYS. By F. G. SELBY, M.A. 3s.; sewed, 2s. 6d.
-  THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. By F. G. SELBY, M.A.
Book I., 2s. Book II., 4s. 6d.
BUNYAN-PILGRIM'S PROGRESS IN MODERN ENGLISH. By JOHN
MORRISON, M.A. Is. 9d.; sewed, ls. 6d.
BURKE-REFLECTIONS ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By F. G. SELBY,
M.A. 5s.
-SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION; SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH
AMERICA; LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. By F. G
SELBY, M.A. 3s. 6d.
BYRON.-CHILDE HAROLD. By EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A. Cantos
I.-II., Is. 9d.; III.-IV., ls. 9d.
CAMPBELL-SELECTIONS. By W. T. WEBB, M.A.        [In Press.
CHAUCER-SELECTIONS FROM CANTERBURY TALES. By H. CORSON.
4s. 6d.
CHOSEN ENGLISH-Selections from Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley,
Lamb, and Scott. With short biographies and notes by A.
ELLIS, B.A. 2s. 6d.
COWPER-THE TASK. Book IV. By W. T. WEBB, M.A. Sewed, Is.
-THE TASK. Book V.
-SELECTIONS FROM LETTERS. By W. T. WEBB, M.A. 2s. 6d.
— SHORTER POEMS. By W. T. WEBB, M.A. 2s. 6d.
DRYDEN-SELECT SATIRES-ABSALOM ANDACHITOPHEL; THE MEDAL;
MAC FLECKNOE. By J. CHURTON COLLINS, M.A. Is. 9d.
GOLDSMITH-THE TRAVELLER and THE DESERTED VILLAGE. By
ARTHUR BARRETT, B.A. Is. 9d. THE TRAVELLER and THE
DESERTED VILLAGE, separately, Is. each, sewed.
— VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. By MIICHAEL MACMILLAN, B.A. 2s. 6d.
GRAY-POEMS. By JOHN BRADSHAW, LL.D. Is. 9d.
HELPS-ESSAYS WRITTEN IN THE INTERVALS OF BUSINESS. By
F. J. ROWE, M.A., and W. T. WEBB, M.A. Is. 9d.
JOHNSON-LIFE OF MILTON. By K. DEIGHTON. Is. 9d.
-LIFE OF DRYDEN. By P. PETEIRSON.            [In the Press.
-LIFE OF POPE. By P. PETERSON.               [In the Press.
LAMB-THE ESSAYS OF ELIA. By N. L. HALLWARD, M.A., and S.
C. HILL, B.A. 3s.; sewed, 2s. 6d.
LONGFELLOW-COURTSHIP OF MILES STANDISH. By W. ELLIOT,
M.A. Is.
MACAULAY-LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Edited by W. T. WEBB, M.A.
Is. 9d.
-ESSAY ON ADDISON. By J. W. HALES, M.A.
-ESSAY ON WARREN HASTINGS. By K. DEIGHTON. 2s. 6d.
-ESSAY ON LORD CLIVE. By K. DEIGHTON. 2s.
-ESSAY ON BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON. By R. F. WINCH, M.A.
2s. 6d.
MALORY-M[ORTE D'ARTHUR. By A. T. MARTIN, M.A. 2s. 6d.
MILTON-PARADISE LOST, Books I. and II.      By MICHAEL
MACMILLAN, B.A. Is. 9d. Books I.-IV., separately, ls. 3d. each;
sewed, Is. each.
-L'ALLEGRO, IL PENSEROSO, LYCIDAS, ARCADES, SONNETS, &o.
By W. BELL, M.A. Is. 9d.
-COMUS. By W. BELL, M.A. Is. 3d.; sewed, li.
-SAMSON AGONISTES. By H. M. PERCIVAL, M. A. 2s.
-TRACTATE OF EDUCATION. By E. E. MORRIS, M.A. Is. 9d.
-LYCIDAS AND COMUS. By W. BELL, M.A. Is. 6d.
PALGRAVE-GOLDEN TREASURY OF SONGS AND LBIcs. Book
Second. By W. BELL, M.A. 3g. 6d.




POEMS OF ENGLAND. A Selection of English Patriotic Poetry.
By H. B. GEORGE, M.A., and A. SIDGWICK, M.A. 2s. 6d.
POPE-ESSAY ON MAN. Epistles I.-IV. ByE. E. MoRRIs,M.A. Is. 3d.:
sewed, Is.
-ESSAY ON CRITICISM. By J. C. COLLINS, M.A. Is. 9d.
SCOTT-THE LADY OF THE LAKE.       By G. H. STUART, M.A.
2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s. Canto I., sewed, 9d.
— THE LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL. By G. H. STUART, M.A.,
and E. H. ELLIOT, B.A. 2s. Canto I., sewed, 9d. Cantos I.-III.
and IV.-VI., separately, is. 3d. each; sewed, Is. each.
-MARMION. By MICHAEL MACMILLAN, B.A. 3s.; sewed, 2s. 6d.
-  ROKEBY. By the same. 3s.; sewed, 2s. 6d.
SHAKESPEARE-THE TEMPEST. By K. DEIGHTON. Is. 9d.
-MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. By the same. 2s.
-   A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. By the same. Is. 9d.
-THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. By the same. Is. 9d.
-   As You LIKE IT. By the same. Is. 9d.
-   TWELFTH NIGHT. By the same. Is. 9d.
-THE WINTER'S TALE. By the same. 2s.
-KING JOHN. By the same. Is. 9d.
-   RICHARD II. By the same. Is. 9d.
-   HENRY IV. Part I. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
-HENRY IV. Part II. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
-   HENRY V. By the same. Is. 9d.
-RICHARD III. By C. H. TAWNEY, M.A. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s
-HENRY VIII. By K. DEIGHTON. 1s. 9d.
— COIOLANUS. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
-ROMEO AND JULIET. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
-JULIUS CESAR. By the same. Is. 9d.
— MACBETH. By the same. is. 9d.
-HAMLET. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
-KING LEAR. By the same. Is. 9d.
-OTHELLO. By the same. 2s.
-ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
-CYMBELINE. By the same. 2s. 6d.; sewed, 2s.
SOUTHEY-LIFE OF NELSON. By MICHAEL MAOMILLAN, B.A. 3s.;
sewed, 2s. 6d.
SPENSER-THE FAERIE QUEENE. Book I. By H. M. PERCIVAL, M.A.
3s.; sewed, 2s. 6d.
-THE SHEPHEARD'S CALENDAR. By C. H. HERFORD, Litt.D. 2s. 6d.
STEELE-SELECTIONS. By L. E. STEELE, M.A. 2s.
TENNYSON-SELECTIONS. By F. J. ROWE, M.A., and W. T. WEBB,
M.A. 3s. 6d. Also in two parts, 2s. 6d. each. PartI. Recollections of the Arabian Nights, The Ladyof Shalott, The Lotos-Eaters,
Dora, Ulysses, Tithonus, The Lord of Burleigh, The Brook, Ode
on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, The Revenge.-Part
II. CEnone, The Palace of Art, A Dream of Fair Women, Morte
D'Arthur, Sir Galahad, The Voyage, Demeter and Persephone.
-MORTE D'ARTHUR. By the same, sewed, is.
-THE COMING OF ARTHUR; THE PASSING OF ARTHUR. By F.
J. ROWE, M.A. 2s. 6d.
-ENOCH ARDEN. By W. T. WEBB, M.A. 2s. 6d.
-AYLMER'S FIELD. By W. T. WEBB, M..A. 2s. 6d.
-THE PRINCESS. By PERCY M. WALLACE, M.A. 3s. 6d.
— GARETH AND LYNETTE. By G. C. MACAULAY, M.A. 2s. 6d.
-THE MARRIAGE OF GERAINT; GERAINT AND ENID. By same. 2s. 6d.
-THE HOLY GRAIL. By G. C. MACAULAY, M.A. 2s. 6d.
-LANCELOT AND ELAINE. By F. J. ROWE, M.A. 2s. 6d.
— GUINEVERE. By G. C. MACAULAY, M.A. 2s. 6d.
WORDSWORTH-SELECTIONS. By W. T. WEBB, M.A., 2s. 6d.; also in
two parts, Is. 9d. each.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.




I
0                                                                   i




I
II




I
I




THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN


DATE DUE
Wi00:v9%^r
wa   09'93
-OCT -29 19
CTiISSO




'!Pm


m4


UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 00233 9789
DO NOT REMOVE
OR
MUTILATE CARD




=.       =2tr


-    -                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              a



Boa
i4t —Ml
us
OwiM
P- "M -105
issue.,