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

 

Alexander Pope - An Essay on Man

Epistle IV - Introduction 

Pope removes the false notions of happiness because the learned blindly dispute where happiness can be found. Pope hints that happiness does not dwell in extremes but in right thinking and in good intentions. Happiness is common to all and “the Universal cause acts not by partial, but by general laws.” There is inequality in the external reality; some are placed higher than others in wealth, wisdom and in power. But power and wealth do not bring about happiness in the lives of people. But on the contrary,

Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense,

Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.

The balance of human happiness is kept equal by Hope and Fear.

Pope brings out the importance of goodness or virtue. A virtuous man is never unhappy. A good man may be weak but he is content. None can expect God to alter His general rules for the sake a few particulars. Evil does not come from God. Evil must be understood in the right perspective. Cyclones do not stop nor volcanoes cease to erupt just because a good man is passing by. The external goods are not the proper rewards and is often destructive of Virtue. Virtue does get prize which is “the soul’s calm sun-shine, and the heart-felt joy…” To the view that virtue suffers but the vice is materially rewarded, Pope responds befittingly.

Virtue only constitutes a happiness, whose object is universal and whose prospect eternal. Happiness is totally above earthly considerations and cannot be destroyed by the things of the earth. In this world where happiness is transitory, it is not worth worrying about fame but even a single moment that we can spend with reason thinking well of ourselves in more worthy than all the loud praises we receive. Pope gives a befitting conclusion to the splendid speed of the fourth and the last Epistles:

That Virtue only makes our Bliss below;

And all our knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

Self-Knowledge is the Ultimate and thus Pope echoes the Biblical advice to mankind: “Know Thyself.” Pope is optimistic in conveying that like a poet, God judiciously balances all the opposing extremes and thus creates harmony that will embrace ‘‘the Whole.”