8/10/2019 Pope, E on Man, Epistle I

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Alexander Pope,An Essay on Man

Excerpts from Epistle I

AWAKE, my St. John! leave all meaner things

o lo am"ition, and the pride of #ings.

$et %s &since life can little more s%pplyhan '%st to loo# a"o%t %s, and to die(

Expatiate free o)er all this scene of man*

A mighty ma+e! "%t not itho%t a plan*

A ild, here eeds and flo)rs promisc%o%sshoot*

r garden, tempting ith for"idden fr%it.

ogether let %s "eat this ample field,

ry hat the open, hat the covert yield!

hro) orlds %nn%m"er)d tho) the -od "e #non,

)is o%rs to trace him only in o%r on.

e, ho thro) vast immensity can pierce,

See orlds on orlds compose one %niverse,"serve ho system into system r%ns,

What other planets circle other s%ns,

What vary)d "eing peoples every star,/ay tell hy heav)n has made %s as e are.

0%t of this frame the "earings and the ties,

he strong connections, nice dependencies,

-radations '%st, has thy pervading so%l$oo#)d thro)1 or can a part contain the hole1

f systems possi"le, if )tis confest

hat isdom infinite m%st form the "est,

Where all m%st f%ll or not coherent "e,

And all that rises, rise in d%e degree*hen, in the scale of reas)ning life, )tis plain,

here m%st "e, somehere, s%ch a ran# as man2

And all the 3%estion &rangle e)er so long(

Is only this, if -od has plac)d him rong1

4especting man hatever rong e call,

/ay, m%st "e right, as relative to all.

0etter for %s, perhaps, it might appear,

Were there all harmony, all virt%e here*

hat never air or ocean felt the ind,hat never passion discompos)d the mind.

0%t all s%"sists "y elemental strife*And passions are the elements of life.

he gen)ral order, since the hole "egan,Is #ept in nat%re, and is #ept in man.

See, thro) this air, this ocean, and this earth,

All matter 3%ic#, and "%rsting into "irth.

A"ove, ho high progressive life may go!

Aro%nd, ho ide! ho deep extend "elo!5ast chain of "eing! hich from -od "egan,

6at%res aethereal, h%man, angel, man,

0east, "ird, fish, insect, hat no eye can see,

6o glass can reach* from infinite to thee,7rom thee to nothing. n s%perior po)rs

Were e to press, inferior might on o%rs*

r in the f%ll creation leave a void,

Where, one step "ro#en, the great scale)sdestroy)d2

7rom 6at%re)s chain hatever lin# yo% stri#e,

enth, or ten tho%sandth, "rea#s the chain ali#e.

And, if each system in gradation roll

Ali#e essential to th) ama+ing hole,he least conf%sion "%t in one, not all

hat system only, "%t the hole m%st fall.

$et earth %n"alanc)d from her or"it fly,

Planets and s%ns r%n laless thro) the s#y*$et r%ling angels from their spheres "e h%rl)d,

0eing on "eing rec#)d, and orld on orld*

eav)n)s hole fo%ndations to their centre nod,

And nat%re trem"le to the throne of -od.

All nat%re is "%t art, %n#non to thee*

All chance, direction, hich tho% canst not see*

All discord, harmony not %nderstood*

All partial evil, %niversal good.And, spite of pride, in erring reason)s spite,

ne tr%th is clear, )Whatever is, is right.)