Alexander
Pope - An Essay on Man
Epistle II - Introduction
Pope tries to explain that life is both
created and destroyed by its own anarchic energies. Epistle II opens on a note
trying to capture the contradictions in man’s life. Man is “darkly wise” and
“rudely great” “born to die” yet reasoning only to err. He is caught in a chaos
of thought and passion. Each man seems to be overwhelmed by a master Passion
which flows in body and soul. When Mankind is viewed as a whole it becomes
clear that weakness or imperfection are common to both king or a commoner alike.
But the beauty of Creation is that heaven seems to have formed each on other to
depend whether it be a master or a servant or friend and in this endless cycle
of existence man hope for a better state. Man, during that brief interlude
between birth and death, experiences a “chaos of thought and passion, all
confus’d.” He finds on earth the “Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all.”
Man’s function is to make “a proper study of mankind”; man is to know himself.
What man will come to know is that he is ruled by passion; passion is the ruler
and reason it’s counsellor.
Alas
what wonder! Man’s superior part
Uncheck’d
may rise and climb from art to art;
But
when his own great work is but begun,
What
Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.
It
is in the nature of man to first serve himself; but, on account of reason, he
does so keeping the future in mind.
Two
Principles in human nature reign;
Self-love,
to urge, and Reason, to restrain;
(Epistle
II, St. II, 1-2)
Self-love
still stronger, as its objects nigh;
Reason’s
at distance, and in prospect lie:
(Epistle
II, St. II, 18-19)
A
person is driven by passion, driven by his desire for pleasure; temptation is
strong and passion is “thicker than arguments.” However, a person soon learns
through bitter experience that one cannot let his or her passions run wild and
that one has to maintain a restraint over one’s emotions.
Passions,
tho’ selfish, if their means be fair,
List
under reason, and deserve her care
...
On
life’s vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason
the card, but passion is the gale;
...
Love,
Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure’s smiling train,
Hate,
Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain,
These
mix’d with art, and to due bounds confin’d,
Make
and maintain the balance of the mind:
(Epistle
II, St. III, 5-28)
Passion
is the king and reason but a “weak queen.”
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!
(Epistle
II, St. III, 61-63)
Reason,”
the’ Eternal Art, reducing good from ill”, is not a guide but a guard. Passion
is the “mightier pow’r.” Envy is something that can be possessed only by those
who are “learn’d or brave.” Ambition: “can destroy or save, and makes a patriot
as it makes a knave.” According to Pope, it soon becomes clear one should not consider
that envy and ambition are in themselves wrong. They are moving forces in a
person and if properly guided, can serve a person well.
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.
(Epistle
II, St. III, 117-119)
Virtuous
and vicious ev’ry man must be,
Few
in the extreme, but all in the degree;.
(Epistle
II, St. III, 140-141)
Each
person seeks his own happiness, seeks his own contentment; each is proud in
what he or she has achieved, no matter what another person might think of those
achievements. None of us should be critical of another person’s choice in life,
as no one knows for certain what is right and what is wrong.
The
fool is happy that he knows no more;
The
rich is happy in the plenty given,
The
poor contents him with the care of Heaven,
See
the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing
The
sot a hero, lunatic a king;
The
starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely
bless’d, the poet in his Muse…
(Epistle
II, St. III, 173-179)
Pope
has pointed out that the child does not demand or expect much: he is happy with
the simplest things in life and responds very innocently to any stimulation.
Behold
the child, by nature’s kindly law,
Pleased
with a rattle, tickled with a straw:
Some
livelier plaything give his youth delight,
A
little louder, but as empty quite:
Scarfs,
garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And
beads and prayer-books are the toys of age:
Pleased
with this bauble still, as that before,
Till
tired he sleeps, and life’s poor play is o’er.
(Epistle
II, St. III, 184-191)
The
message in this Epistle II is that Man has to study himself and not pry into
the affairs of God for His ways are inscrutable. Pope studies the powers and
frailties of man. The two dominating principles are Self-love and Reason, both
of which seem necessary in man’s life. Self-love is likened to the tendency of
heavenly bodies to keep moving and reason to the force of gravitation that is
necessary to hold them in their orbits.
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