Alexander Pope - An Essay on Man - Epistle III (Introduction)

 

Alexander Pope - An Essay on Man

Epistle III - Introduction 

The idea of a bond continues in Epistle III where Pope calls it a “chain of Love Combining all below and all above.” The whole Universe is a system of society. Man is the only intellectual being in the system. He cannot live in isolation – nothing is made for itself, nor yet wholly for another; Pope’s opinion is that man is made for the animals just as the animals for man. It is in mutual wants there is mutual happiness.

Know, Nature’s children all divide her care;

The fur that warms a monarch, warm’d a bear.

(Epistle III, St. I, 43-44)

Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,

To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods;

(Epistle III, St. I, 58-59)

Pope says, that all is natural in nature and man is a part of nature. He first observes how “plastic” nature is, how everything, dependent on one and the other, is attracted to one and the other. Pope has observed that things in nature repel one another. All things are held in the balance, suspended, so it seems, between the two great forces of attraction and repulsion.

All forms that perish other forms supply,

(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)

Like bubbles on the sea a matter borne,

They rise, they break, and to that sea return

Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole.

(Epistle III, St.I, 17-21)

Pope refers to instinct as “the unerring guide” that reason often fails us, though sometimes “serves when press’d.”

But honest instinct comes a volunteer,

Sure never to o’ershoot, but just to hit,

While still to wide or short is human wit;

Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,

Which heavier reason labour at in vain.

(Epistle III, St. II, 10-14)

Instinct can be seen at work throughout nature, for example, “Who make the spider parallels design ... without rule or line?” Not just the spider does things by instinct, man also does. The obvious example is his artistic work, but man’s instincts serve him on a much broader range. Many of our daily chores are done mechanically without any thought as it were. Pope then deals with family units in the animal kingdom versus human beings. The fact of the matter is, family units do not count for much in the animal kingdom, at any rate, not for long. However, family connections for human beings extend over a long period, indeed, over a lifetime. These family feelings are important for the development and cohesion of the family.

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.

A longer care man’s helpless kind demands;

That longer care contracts more lasting bands:

Reflection, reason, still the ties improve,….

Still spread the interest, and preserved the kind.

(Epistle III, St. III, 17-38)

Pope then returns to his principle and the power of nature. Nature is a “driving gale,” a fact which can be observed in “the voice of nature” and which we can learn from the birds and the beasts. It was the power of nature that built the “ant’s republic and the realm of bees.” Pope observes “anarchy without confusion.” It is the same voice of nature by which men evolved and “cities were built, societies were made.” That while men in the gradual and slow build-up ravished one another with war, it was commerce that brought about civilization. Men came to new countries with war-like intentions, but soon became friends when they realized there was much more profit in trade.

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;

Draw to one point, and to one centre bring

Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.

(Epistle III, St. VI, 81-88)

Pope says, that while government is necessary, its form is of less importance, what is important, is a good administration:

For forms of government let fools contest;

Whate’er is best administer’d is best.

(Epistle III, St. VI, 89-90)

Pope concludes his third Epistle, saying that regard for oneself and his family has to be different than regard for the whole of society. The other factors are that while man is the only animal whose faculties enable him to apprehend the approach of death, yet he continues to perform his duties. The poet then points out that Reason or Instinct operate only for the good of each individual and they also operate for the functioning of a society. Pope says, that instinct is the direct power of God acting in animals, and therefore superior in its accuracy to reason.

Pope asks men to receive instruction from creatures

Like birds, beasts –

Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;

Thy arts of building from the bee receive;

(Epistle III, St. IV, 27-28)

Pope is of the view that reason is instructed by instinct in the invention of Art. He discusses how “cities were build and societies were made,” the forms of societies, origin of political societies, origin of monarchy, how “by Nature crown’d, each Patriarch sate, King, priest, and parent of his growing state.”

Pope says, that it is love that binds the Universe. The love of vine and elm is a fine example and the Newton’s principle of attractive force holding the planets in their orbits is yet another example demonstrating the “diffusive love of God.”