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.”
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