An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires
1715
An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires
1715
Alexander Pope's Essay on Man is one of the most extraordinary acts of systematization in English verse. Written in formally precise heroic couplets, it ranges across epistemology, ethics, physics, and theology to answer a single burning question: what is humanity's place in the cosmos? Addressing his friend Lord Bolingbroke across four epistles, Pope examines our position in the great chain of being, the tension between reason and passion, the nature of happiness, and the principles governing civil society. He argues that what appears chaotic or unjust in the world is actually part of a divine order we can perceive only partially. Our salvation lies not in aspiring to angelic pure reason nor in surrendering to brute instinct, but in knowing and accepting our station. Pope's achievement is remarkable: a work of genuine philosophical ambition that never sacrifices musicality, where every line crackles with wit and every couplet locks into place like masonry. It influenced Enlightenment thought across Europe and remains a towering monument to the possibility of rational order.
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“What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.””
— Alexander Pope
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.””
— Alexander Pope
“Act well your part; there all the honour lies.””
— Alexander Pope
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,The proper study of mankind is Man.Placed 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;Alike in ignorance, his reason such,Whether he thinks too little or too much;Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;Still by himself abused or disabused;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;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;Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,And quitting sense call imitating God;As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,And turn their heads to imitate the sun.Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule”
— Alexander Pope
“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.””
— Alexander Pope
“All nature is but art, unknown to thee;All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;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.””
— Alexander Pope
“Man is always inclined to regard the small circle in which he lives as the center of the world and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe. But he must give up this vain pretense, this petty provincial way of thinking and judging.””
— Alexander Pope
“An honest man's the noblest work of God””
— Alexander Pope
“Order is heaven's first law.””
— Alexander Pope
