Essay on Man

by Alexander Pope

EPISTLE II: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Himself as an Individual
ARGUMENT

I. The business of Man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature; his powers and frailties. The limits of his capacity. II. The two principles of Man: Self-love and Reason, both necessary. Self-love the stronger, and why. Their end the same. III. The Passions, and their use. The predominant passion, and its force. Its necessity, in directing men to different purposes. Its providential use, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate, and evident: what is the office of Reason. V. How odious Vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it. VI. That, however, the ends of Providence, and general goods, are answered in our passions and imperfections. How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men: how useful they are to Society; and to individuals; in every state, and every age of life.
I.

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! Notes
1]

Pope's summary of the Epistle II is as follows. ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE II/Of the Nature and State ofMan with respect to Himself as an Individual. I. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His Middle Nature; his Powers and Frailties, . The limits of his capacity, II. The two principles of man, self-love and reason, both necessary. Self-love the stronger, and why. Their end the same. III. The Passions and their use, .The predominant Passion, and its force. Its Necessity, in directing men to different purposes. Its providential Use, in fixing our Principle, and ascertaining our Virtue. IV. Virtue and Vice joined in our mixed Nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident: What is the Office of Reason. V. How odious Vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it. VI. That, however, the Ends of Providence and general Good are answered in our Passions and Imperfections, v. How usefully these are distributed to all Orders of Men. How useful they are to Society. And to the Individuals. In every state, and every age of life. scan: criticize, judge by a certain rule or standard.
4] 6]

darkly wise

Stoic's pride: the idea that man can eliminate passion and become a purely intellectual being. ENDNOTES: 1[His friend, Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke] 2[to wander] 3[hidden areas] 4[explain or defend] 5[silvery fields, i.e., the heavens] 6[the planet Jupiter] 7[ancient Egyptians sometimes worshipped oxen] 8[the highest level of angels] 9[pleasure]

10[the balance used to weigh justice] 11[Caesar Borgia (1476-1507) who used any cruelty to achieve his ends] 12[Lucious Sergius Catilina (108-62 B.C.) who was a traitor to Rome] 13[Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.) who was thought to be overly ambitious Roman] 14[Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.)] 15[Psalm 8:5--"Thou hast made him [man] a little lower than the angels...."] 16[small insect] 17[vapors which were believed to pass odors to the brain] 18[the West Wind]

Definition of Caesura Literary Term Caesura Literary Term is a grammatical pause or break in a line of poetry (like a question mark), usually near the middle of the line. A caesura is usually dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by metrics. In poetry scansion, a caesura is usually indicated by the symbol //. The caesura can also be used for rhetorical effect, as in "To err is human; || to forgive, divine." by Alexander Pope

Summary The subtitle of the second epistle is Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to Himself as an Individual and treats on the relationship between the individual and Gods greater design. Here is a section-by-section explanation of the second epistle: Section I (1-52): Section I argues that man should not pry into Gods affairs but rather study himself, especially his nature, powers, limits, and frailties.

Analysis The second epistle adds to the interpretive challenges presented in the first epistle. At its outset, Pope commands man to Know then thyself, an adage that misdescribes his argument (1). Although he actually intends for man to better understand his place in the universe, the classical meaning of Know thyself is that man should look inwards for truth rather than outwards. Having spent most of the first epistle describing mans relationship to God as well as his fellow creatures, Popes true meaning of the phrase is clear. He then confuses the issue by endeavoring to convince man to avoid the presumptuousness of studying Gods creation through natural science. Science has given man the tools to better understand Gods creation, but its intoxicating power has caused man to imitate God. It seems that man must look outwards to gain any understanding of his divine purpose but avoid excessive analysis of what he sees. To do so would be to assume the role of God. The second epistle abruptly turns to focus on the principles that guide human action. The rest of this section focuses largely on self-love, an eighteenth-century term for self-maintenance and fulfillment. It was common during Popes lifetime to view the passions as the force determining human action. Typically instinctual, the immediate object of the passions was seen as pleasure. According to Popes philosophy, each man has a ruling passion that subordinates the others. In contrast with the accepted eighteenth-century views of the passions, Popes doctrine of the ruling passion is quite original. It seems clear that with this idea, Pope tries to explain why certain individuals behave in distinct ways, seemingly governed by a particular desire. He does not, however, make this explicit in the poem. Popes discussion of the passions shows that self-love and reason are not opposing principles. Reasons role, it seems, is to regulate human behavior while self-love originates it. In another sense, self-love and the passions dictate the short term while reason shapes the long term. An Essay on Man Alexander Pope INTRODUCTION The philosophical poem An Essay on Man consists of four verse epistles, each of which was published separately and anonymously between February 1733 and January 1734 by a bookseller not previously associated with Pope's writings. Attesting to his belief that the life of a Wit is a warfare upon earth, Pope contrived the elaborate ruse partly to defuse the hostility provoked by his recent satires, notably The Dunciad(1728) and his Epistle to Burlington (1731), and partly to secure an impartial audience for the poem.

Pope eventually identified himself as the author when he collected the epistles under the subtitle Being the First Book of Ethic Epistles. He had originally conceived of An Essay on Manas the introduction to an opus magnum on society and morality, but he later abandoned the plan. To this end, the poem addresses the question of human nature and the potential for happiness in relation to the universe, social and political hierarchies, and the individual. Articulating the values of eighteenth-century optimism, the poem employs a majestic declamatory style and underscores its arguments with a range of conventional rhetorical techniques. An Essay on Man met with international acclaim upon publication and generated no small share of controversy in ensuing decades. During the succeeding centuries, however, critics have perceived Pope's poem as fundamentally flawed, both aesthetically and philosophically. Nearly three hundred years after its publication, the poem generally merits distinction as, in David B. Morris's phrase, a forlorn classic of ratiocination. Plot and Major Characters Pope addressed An Essay on Man to Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, who served briefly as secretary of state and prime minister under Queen Anne. Previously acquainted with Pope by mutual association with Jonathan Swift, Bolingbroke retired in 1723 to Dawley, a farm neighboring Pope's Twickenham, and quickly befriended the poet, whose personal beliefs neatly coincided with his own. The friends often discussed much of the subject matter expressed in both Pope's poem and Bolingbroke's own amateur philosophical writings, usually as they walked the grounds of their properties. Divided into four parts, An Essay on Man explicates ideas commonplace among eighteenth-century European intellectuals concerning human nature and humanity's role in the universe. Proposing to vindicate the ways of God to man, the first epistle attempts to show the underlying harmony and virtue of the universe and the propriety of humanity's place in it, despite the presence of evil and apparent imperfection in the world. Each of the remaining epistles draws upon this premise, describing potential improvements to some aspect of human nature and society with the implicit understanding that the universe is divinely ordered and essentially perfect. The second epistle discusses humans as unique beings and shows how the psychological balance between self-interest and the passions, or emotions, under the guidance of reason, promotes virtuous living. The third epistle addresses the role of the individual in society, tracing the origins of such civilizing institutions as government and the class system to a constant interaction between the selfish motivations and altruistic impulses of individual humans. The fourth epistle frames the struggle between self-love and love of others in terms of the pursuit of happiness, arguing that any human can attain true happiness through virtuous living, which happens only when selfish instincts yield to genuine expressions of benevolence toward others and God. Major Themes Throughout the epistles of An Essay on Man Pope surveys such grand themes as the existence of a Supreme Being and the behavior of humans, the workings of the universe and the role of humans in it, and the capacity of government to establish and promote the happiness of its citizens. Consequently, the poem is one of Pope's most thorough statements of his philosophical, ethical, and political principles, which, however, were generally neither unique, radical, nor systematic. A practicing Catholic and instinctually conservative in his politicseach position precarious to acknowledge

in Pope's timePope carefully avoids explicit references to specific church doctrines and political issues in the poem. Implicitly assuming such Christian notions as fallen man, lost paradise, and a beneficent deity, the poem presents an eclectic assortment of both traditional and current philosophical ideas that attempt to explain the universal characteristics of humankind. The poem borrows ideas from a range of medieval and renaissance thinkers, although Pope somewhat modifies them to suit his artistic purposes. The underlying theme of the poem is the idea that there exists an ordered universe which possesses a coherent structure and functions in a rational fashion, according to natural laws designed by God. The description of its structure derives from the metaphysical doctrine of the Great Chain of Being, which explains the fullness and unity of the natural world in terms of a hierarchy that ranges from plants and insects at one end to humans and angels at the other. As a creation of God, the universe ultimately is a perfect design that appears imperfect to humans because the ability to perceive its order correctly is diminished by pride and intellectual limitations. If humanity were to acknowledge with humility its insignificant position in the greater context of creation, Pope reasons, then humanity's capacity to live happily and virtuously on earth would be possible. Pope expresses many of his main ideas regarding human nature in language so indelible and pithy that some phrases from the poem have become commonplace in the English language. Critical Reception Upon publication, An Essay on Man made Pope the toast of literati everywhere, including his inveterate foes in London, whom he deceived into celebrating the poem, since he had published it anonymously. His avowed enemy Leonard Welsted, for instance, declared the poem above all commendation. This assessment typified the initial critical and popular response in England, which was generally echoed throughout Europe over the next two decades. Such notable figures as Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant rhapsodized about the poem's literary aesthetics and philosophical insights. However, the early universal appeal of An Essay on Man soon gave way to controversy inspired by a small but vocal community of metaphysicians and clergymen, who perceived challenges and threats in the poem's themes to their respective authority. These critics determined that its values, despite its themes, were essentially poetic and not coherently philosophical by any means. Within fifty years of its publication, the prevailing critical opinion of the poem mirrored that of Samuel Johnson, who noted, Never were penury of knowledge and vulgarity of sentiment so happily disguised. This consensus persisted throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century, as commentators also trivialized the work's poetic achievements as they generally did Pope's other writings. Widely neglected and relegated to the dustbin of literary history, An Essay on Man has been often perceived as an historical curiosity disconnected from contemporary concerns, literary and otherwise. However, a number of recent critics have sought to rehabilitate the poem's status in the canon by focusing on its language and ideas in terms of the genre of philosophical poetry. Other commentators have attempted to reevaluate the poem's ideas within the context of early eighteenth-century thought in an effort to demonstrate that Pope derived his theodicy or explanation of the ways of Godfrom the various philosophical and theological positions held by his intellectual peers.