Hello and welcome to the Discourse. An Essay on Man is a long philosophical poem by Alexander Pope that was first published in the year 1734. The philosophical basis of the poem was based on Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Boolingbrooke. Pope dedicated the poem to him and mentioned him in the very first couplet of the poem “Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things / To low ambition, and the pride of kings.”
The Design
The poem is written in Heroic Couplet which remained the favorite of Alexander Pope for all his works. Unlike his other satirical works that often depicted the sad pessimistic situations of society (The Rape of the Lock/ The Dunciad etc.) this poem is very optimistic. As the title suggests, the poem is about Man in the abstract, his Nature, and his State. The poem has four verse parts and the beginning prose part. The first part is The Design which is a brief explanation of the aim of the poem written in prose. In The Design, Pope mentions that he chose to write his idea in verse because it is easier to be concise in verse.
John Milton made a claim in the opening lines of Paradise Lost that he will "justifie the wayes of God to men." Pope makes a similar claim in The Design and says that the poem is an effort to "vindicate the ways of God to man." Unlike John Milton, who based Paradise Lost on Biblical events, Pope didn’t mention any of it. An Essay on Man is not a Biblical allegory. Rather it is concerned with the natural order God has decreed for man. Because man cannot know God's purposes, he cannot complain about his position in the great chain of being and must accept that "Whatever is, is right" and that is the theme of the poem. Pope stresses that man has learned about nature and God's creation through science; consequently, science has given man power, but having become intoxicated by this power, man has begun to think that he is "imitating God".
The poem was hugely praised by Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Emmanuel Kant. However, Voltaire satirized the central idea of the poem in his book Candid.
The essay consists of 1304 lines in heroic couplets divided into four parts of Epistles. Each Epistle (or Letter) begins with an ‘Argument’ that establishes the topic of that part and then offers detailed views on it.
Summary of Epistle 1
The subtitle of the 1st Epistle of the essay is “Of the Nature and State of Man, concerning the Universe,” and that is the central point of the argument to be clarified. It deals with man’s place in the cosmos. The first epistle consists of 294 lines written in Heroic couplets which can be divided into 10 parts beginning with an introduction.
Pope begins the first Epistle and the whole poem with a dedicatory address to Henry St. John and says,
Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things / To low ambition, and the pride of kings. // Let us (since life can little more supply / Than just to look about us and to die) // Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man; / A mighty maze! but not without a plan. //
St. John was a political opponent of Robert Walpole and was facing a difficult time thus, Pope addresses him to put aside unimportant and mundane tasks and instead embark on a philosophical quest with him.
Pope suggests that man is nothing special and God has no favorite and thus to justify God’s ways to man must necessarily be to justify His ways about all other things. While Humans have limited abilities and then perceive the world only from their point of view, God certainly has many different worlds, many other points of view, and perceptions to take care of. That is, God is not only responsible for Man, but God is responsible for the whole creation, living and nonliving. Pope further says that often people complain about their weaknesses as they fail to understand the reason for their weaknesses just like they fail to understand why oak is stronger than the weeds beneath it. Then Pope mentions the theme of Hierarchy and order, “strong connexions, nice dependencies, / Gradations just.” This hierarchy is a “Vast chain of being” in which all of God’s creations have a place. Pope contends that Man’s place in this hierarchy is below Angels, but above beasts and birds. Pope says that this chain of beings is too vast and too much ordered which man cannot comprehend. The chain includes organisms too small to see, creatures of the heavens and the oceans, and creatures superior and inferior to people. Despite their positions in Hierarchy, all beings are equally loved by God and all are important for the balance of creation. Even the heavens would fall if the lowest creature were eliminated from the vast chain. Just like all body parts are equally necessary for the proper functioning of our body, every creature in the universe is important to the whole.
The poet says that God keeps the future hidden from humankind for a reason. He suggests that if a lamb knew that it will be slaughtered, it wouldn't frolic happily. Similarly, being unaware of the future is a gift from God to men. This gift can be perceived as ‘Hope’ for a better future. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast," as Pope says.
The poet says that the natural order allows flaws to exist both in nature and in humans. Humans have their capabilities and their limits. The poet says that every creature of this universe has a purpose and if all the creatures are happy with their role in the life cycle, humans should also be happy and they should accept their weaknesses of flaws just like they embrace and cherish their capabilities. If people could do everything they wanted, it would not suffice them and thus, God gifts people with different capabilities and weaknesses. The poet then discusses the issue of ‘Chance’ and says that the Universe is not by ‘Chance’ as man perceives it. Rather, the Universe is highly ordered and thus Chance is rather “direction, which thou canst not see,” that is, even chance or probability is also a highly ordered concept that man is not able to perceive.
Pope says that man should believe in God’s power and acumen since everything exists according to God's plan. A man should submit to God because "whatever is, is right."
Divisions of Epistle 1
Epistle 1 begins with the introduction (Lines 1-16) in which Pope dedicates the poem to Henry St. John and invites him on a quest to “vindicate the ways of God to man.”
Section 1 comprises Lines 17-34 in which Pope argues that man has a limited point of view because he can perceive and understand the universe about human systems and constructions alone while he is ignorant of greater dependencies of God’s other creations. Humans can judge "only about our own system."
Section 2 comprises lines 35-76 in which the poet says that even with his flaws, man is perfectly suited for his position in the hierarchy of God’s creation according to the general order of things. That is, despite having limited capabilities and flaws, Man is not imperfect; he has a proper place in creation.
Section 3 includes lines 77-112 in which the poet says that like all other creatures, Man remains ignorant of the future and it is a gift by God as it fills Man with hopes for the future. Present happiness depends on hope for the future.
Section 4 contains lines 113-130 in which Pope claims that the reason for man’s suffering and misery is his pride and ambition to gain more knowledge and pretend to greater perfection. By putting himself in the place of God, judging perfection and justice, man acts impiously which leads him to question his limits as by nature, Man is not perfect.
Section 5 includes lines 131- 172 in which Pope ridicules the idea that the sole cause of creation and the idea that God made man in his own image. Pope says that this wrong perception offers the man a ridiculous expectation of perfection in the moral world that does not exist in the natural world.
Section 6 comprises lines 173-206 in which the poet discusses the result of the flaws of man in his pride and greed for more knowledge and will to imitate God. The poet says when Man tries to be God, he faces his own limitations and then he complains against Providence. Pope says that it is unreasonable to complain against God. If man had the omniscience of God, he would be miserable.
Section 7 includes lines 207-232 in which the poet asserts that a well-defined order or gradation prevails over the whole world which is particularly apparent in the hierarchy of earthly creatures and their subordination to man. Pope says that this gradation appears in abilities of sense, instinct, thought, reflection, and reason. Since Reason is superior to all and Man alone has that ability, he is superior to all other creatures.
Section 8 contains lines 233-258 in which Pope again asserts that despite having the power of Reason, it is absurd to suggest that Man is favored by God because all creatures are important for the whole. All creatures are connected, and the connections cannot be destroyed.
Section 9 contains lines 259-280 in which the poet decries the ill attempts of disturbing or subverting the order of Providence as madness.
Section 10 includes lines 281-294 the poet suggests that to submit completely and whole-heartedly to God’s order and acumen is in the best interest of man because absolute submission to God will ensure that man remains “Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow’r” and if man submits to God, then he must believe in his acumen and accept that “Whatever is, is right.”
Analysis of An Essay on Man Epistle 1
It appears that Pope endorses the idea of fatalism in the first epistle and suggests that all things are fated and designed by God. He further stresses that man should take things, situations, and events as best as they are because everything belongs to God’s greater design that man cannot question. After all, he is just a meager part of the grand creation encompassing all.
Pope ascertains the superiority of Man over beasts, birds, and other creatures based on his rational faculty but states that he is no closure and dearer to God than any other creature, and all creatures are equally important for the balance of creation. This is a stark difference from Milton’s Paradise Lost in which Milton asserted that God created man in his own image. Pope further ridicules the efforts of man to become God or Godlike, he suggests a man should understand, embrace and cherish his limits. Pope states that man’s limited intellect can comprehend only a small portion of God’s order and likewise can have knowledge of only half-truths.
Despite praising this poem Pope as "the most beautiful, the most useful, the most sublime didactic poem ever written in any language,” Voltaire opposed and ridiculed this fatalistic approach in his book Candide.
In Epistle 1, or the whole poem An Essay on Man, Pope didn’t express any new idea of his own, but rather expressed Neoclassical ideas and theories in a very elucidated and attractive manner.
So this is it for today. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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