The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems
in the moral universe all things, even man's passions and crimes conduce
to the general good of the whole. Finally it urges calm submission and
acquiescence in what is hard to understand, since "one truth is
clear,--whatever is, is right."
The second epistle deals with the nature of man as an individual. It
begins by urging men to abandon vain questionings of God's providence
and to take up the consideration of their own natures, for "the proper
study of mankind is man." Pope points out that the two cardinal
principles of man's nature are self-love and reason, the first an
impelling, the second a regulating power. The aim of both these
principles is pleasure, by which Pope means happiness, which he takes
for the highest good. Each man is dominated by a master passion, and it
is the proper function of reason to control this passion for good and to
make it bear fruit in virtue. No man is wholly virtuous or vicious, and
Heaven uses the mingled qualities of men to bind them together in mutual
interdependence, and makes the various passions and imperfections of
mankind serve the general good. And the final conclusion is that "though
man's a fool, yet God is wise."
The third epistle treats of the nature of man with respect to society.
All creatures, Pope asserts, are bound together and live not for
themselves alone, but man is preeminently a social being. The first
state of man was the state of nature when he lived in innocent ignorance
with his fellow-creatures. Obeying the voice of nature, man learned to
copy and improve upon the instincts of the animals, to build, to plow,
to spin, to unite in societies like those of ants and bees. The first
form of government was patriarchal; then monarchies arose in which
virtue, "in arms or arts," made one man ruler over many. In either case
the origin of true government as of true religion was love. Gradually
force crept in and uniting with superstition gave rise to tyranny and
false religions. Poets and patriots, however, restored the ancient faith
and taught power's due use by showing the necessity of harmony in the
state. Pope concludes by asserting the folly of contention for forms of
government or modes of faith. The common end of government as of
religion is the general good. It may be noticed in passing that Pope's
account of the evolution of society bears even less relation to
historical facts than does his account of the development of literature
in the 'Essay on Criticism.'
The last epistle discusses the nature of happiness, "our being's end and
aim." Happiness is attainable by all men who think right and mean well.
It consists not in individual, but in mutual pleasure. It does not
consist in external things, mere gifts of fortune, but in health, peace,
and competence. Virtuous men are, indeed, subject to calamities of
nature; but God cannot be expected to suspend the operation of general
laws to spare the virtuous. Objectors who would construct a system in
which all virtuous men are blest, are challenged to define the virtuous
and to specify what is meant by blessings. Honors, nobility, fame,
superior talents, often merely serve to make their possessors unhappy.
Virtue alone is happiness, and virtue consists in a recognition of the
laws of Providence, and in love for one's fellow-man.
Even this brief outline will show, I think, some of the inconsistencies
and omissions of Pope's train of thought. A careful examination of his
arguments in detail would be wholly out of place here. The reader who
wishes to pursue the subject further may consult Warburton's elaborate
vindication of Pope's argument, and Elwin's equally prosy refutation, or
better still the admirable summary by Leslie Stephen in the chapter on
this poem in his life of Pope ('English Men of Letters'). No one is now
likely to turn to the writer of the early eighteenth century for a
system of the universe, least of all to a writer so incapable of exact
or systematic thinking as Alexander Pope. If the 'Essay on Man' has any
claim to be read to-day, it must be as a piece of literature pure and
simple. For philosophy and poetry combined, Browning and Tennyson lie
nearer to our age and mode of thought than Pope.
Even regarded as a piece of literature the 'Essay on Man' cannot, I
think, claim the highest place among Pope's works. It obtained, indeed,
a success at home and abroad such as was achieved by no other English
poem until the appearance of 'Childe Harold'. It was translated into
French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and Latin. It was imitated
by Wieland, praised by Voltaire, and quoted by Kant. But this success
was due in part to the accuracy with which it reflected ideas which were
the common property of its age, in part to the extraordinary vigor and
finish of its epigrams, which made it one of the most quotable of
English poems. But as a whole the Essay is not a great poem. The poet is
evidently struggling with a subject that is too weighty for him, and at
times he staggers and sinks beneath his burden. The second and third
books in particular are, it must be confessed, with the exception of one
or two fine outbursts, little better than dull, and dullness is not a
quality one is accustomed to associate with Pope. The 'Essay on Man'
lacks the bright humor and imaginative artistry of 'The Rape of the
Lock,' and the lively portraiture, vigorous satire, and strong personal
note of the 'Moral Epistles' and 'Imitations of Horace'. Pope is at his
best when he is dealing with a concrete world of men and women as they
lived and moved in the London of his day; he is at his worst when he is
attempting to seize and render abstract ideas.
Yet the 'Essay on Man' is a very remarkable work. In the first place, it
shows Pope's wonderful power of expression. No one can read the poem for
the first time without meeting on page after page phrases and epigrams
which have become part of the common currency of our language. Pope's
"precision and firmness of touch," to quote the apt statement of Leslie
Stephen, "enables him to get the greatest possible meaning into a narrow
compass. He uses only one epithet, but it is the right one." Even when
the thought is commonplace enough, the felicity of the expression gives
it a new and effective force. And there are whole passages where Pope
rises high above the mere coining of epigrams. As I have tried to show
in my notes he composed by separate paragraphs, and when he chances upon
a topic that appeals to his imagination or touches his heart, we get an
outburst of poetry that shines in splendid contrast to the prosaic
plainness of its surroundings. Such, for example, are the noble verses
that tell of the immanence of God in his creation at the close of the
first epistle, or the magnificent invective against tyranny and
superstition in the third (ll. 241-268).
Finally the 'Essay on Man' is of interest in what it tells us of Pope
himself. Mr. Elwin's idea that in the 'Essay on Man' Pope, "partly the
dupe, partly the accomplice of Bolingbroke," was attempting craftily to
undermine the foundations of religion, is a notion curiously compounded
of critical blindness and theological rancor. In spite of all its
incoherencies and futilities the 'Essay' is an honest attempt to express
Pope's opinions, borrowed in part, of course, from his admired friend,
but in part the current notions of his age, on some of the greatest
questions that have perplexed the mind of man. And Pope's attitude
toward the questions is that of the best minds of his day, at once
religious, independent, and sincere. He acknowledges the omnipotence and
benevolence of God, confesses the limitations and imperfections of human
knowledge, teaches humility in the presence of unanswerable problems,
urges submission to Divine Providence, extols virtue as the true source
of happiness, and love of man as an essential of virtue. If we study the
'Essay on Man' as the reasoned argument of a philosopher, we shall turn
from it with something like contempt; if we read it as the expression of
a poet's sentiments, we shall, I think, leave it with an admiration
warmer than before for a character that has been so much abused and so
little understood as that of Pope.
THE DESIGN
'2 Bacon's expression:'
in the dedication of his 'Essays' (1625) to Buckingham, Bacon speaks of
them as the most popular of his writings, "for that, as it seems, they
come home to men's business and bosoms."
'11 anatomy:' dissection.
EPISTLE I
'1 St. John:'
Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, Pope's "guide, philosopher, and
friend," under whose influence the 'Essay on Man' was composed.
'5 expatiate:'
range, wander.
'6'
Pope says that this line alludes to the subject of this first Epistle,
"the state of man here and hereafter, disposed by Providence, though to
him unknown." The next two lines allude to the main topics of the three
remaining epistles, "the constitution of the human mind ... the
temptations of misapplied self-love, and the wrong pursuits of power,
pleasure, and false happiness."
'9 beat ... field:'
the metaphor is drawn from hunting. Note how it is elaborated in the
following lines.
'12 blindly creep ... sightless soar:'
the first are the ignorant and indifferent; those who "sightless soar"
are the presumptuous who reason blindly about things too high for human
knowledge.
'15 candid:'
lenient, free from harsh judgments.
'16'
An adaptation of a well-known line of Milton's 'Paradise Lost', l, 26.
'17-23'
Pope lays down as the basis of his system that all argument about man or
God must be based upon what we know of man's present life, and of God's
workings in this world of ours.
'29 this frame:'
the universe. Compare 'Hamlet', II, ii, 310, "this goodly frame, the
earth."
'30 nice dependencies:'
subtle inter-relations.
'31 Gradations just:'
exact shades of difference.
'32 a part:'
the mind of man, which is but a part of the whole universe.
'33 the great chain:'
according to Homer, Jove, the supreme God, sustained the whole creation
by a golden chain. Milton also makes use of this idea of the visible
universe as linked to heaven in a golden chain, 'Paradise Lost', II,
1004-1006, and 1051-1052.
'41 yonder argent fields:'
the sky spangled with silvery stars. The phrase is borrowed from Milton,
'Paradise Lost', III, 460.
'42 Jove:'
the planet Jupiter.
'satellites:'
Pope preserves here the Latin pronunciation, four syllables, with the
accent on the antepenult.
'43-50.'
Pope here takes it for granted that our universe, inasmuch as it is the
work of God's infinite wisdom, must be the best system possible. If this
be granted, he says, it is plain that man must have a place somewhere in
this system, and the only question is whether "God has placed him wrong."
'45'
Every grade in creation must be complete, so as to join with that which
is beneath and with that which is above it or there would be a lack of
coherency, a break, somewhere in the system.
'47 reas'ning life:'
conscious mental life.
'51-60'
Pope argues here that since man is a part of the best possible system,
whatever seems wrong in him must be right when considered in relation to
the whole order of the universe. It is only our ignorance of this order
which keeps us from realizing this fact.
'55 one single:'
the word "movement" is understood after "single."
'61-68'
Pope here illustrates his preceding argument by analogy. We can know no
more of God's purpose in the ordering of our lives than the animals can
know of our ordering of theirs.
'64 AEgypt's God:'
One of the gods of the Egyptians was the sacred bull, Apis.
'68 a deity:'
worshiped as a god, like the Egyptian kings and Roman emperors.