Cldraru Delia Florentina First Year, 5th Group First language: Romanian

Essay on man
Alexander Pope Alexander Pope was born in 1688 London, in a Catholic family. He lived during the time of Protestant consolidation in England and suffered certain social and economic disadvantages due to his religion. He wrote in the Augustan Age of English literature1, and one could say that his works are very important for this age. It is well known for his poem The Rape of the Lock and his translation of Homers Iliad, but we must not forget about An Essay on Criticism and Essay on Man, both written in heroic couplet2 style. The subject of this essay is the last poem mentioned. Essay on Man is one of Popes philosophical poems, in witch he articulates Enlightenment3 thinking such as showing human beings as rational creatures. Pope acknowledged the existence of contradictions in life, but only as external facts, he thinks that everything has his place in a harmonious world. The essay contains four epistles addressed to Lord Bacon, all written in verse and the reason is explained by the author: This I might have done in prose; but I chose verse, and even rhyme, for two reasons. The one will appear obvious; that principles, maxims, or precepts, so written, both strike the reader more strongly at first, and are more easily retained by him afterwards: the other may seem odd, but it is true: I found I could express them more shortly this way than in prose itself; and nothing is more certain than that much of the force as well as grace of arguments or instructions depends on their conciseness. Pope approaches the issue of man in the abstract, his nature and his state in the chain of being, establishing mans role and passion on Gods plan. He is trying to clarify the relation between humanity, universe, society and happiness. The universe was created in order to satisfy mans pleasures and needs and everything must be seen as a hole. Pope also discusses a paradox: the existence of evil is essential for the sake of the grater good, but this is above human understanding. Everything has his role in Gods plan. The term "the chain of being" implied that
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The Augustan Age is the first neoclassical-period and was so called by analogy to the Golden Age of Roman letters, the age of Emperor Augustus. The Augustan Age was between 1700 and 1740. 2 A verse unit consisting of two rhymed lines in iambic pentameter. 3 Cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century, whose purpose was to reform society and advance knowledge.

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Cldraru Delia Florentina First Year, 5th Group First language: Romanian it is, provided the chief basis for most of the more serious attempts to solve the problem of evil and to show that the scheme of things is an intelligible and rational one.4

EPISTLE I: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to the Universe
The poem begins with Popes advice to the auditory: "Awake, my St. John!. He is trying to make people use their reason to see the surrounding with the eyes of reason in order to undercover the plan of God: Together let us beat this ample field, /Try what the open, what the covert yield; /The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore /Of all who blindly creep or sightless soar;. But man is limited in his judgement by experience. This is because experience determinates a specific system of thought. As mentioned before, Pope discusses the existence of a chain of being in witch everything has his role and place well defined, and from this point of view, a human being is perfect. Man is ignorant of the divine plan and his happiness depends on hope. He wants to replace God and to overcome his ignorance by gaining knowledge. He has other sins like: judging others and considering himself superior to other creatures, conception determined by the perception of him being the cause of creation. One may consider the existence of a contradiction in what I said before: the perfection of man and the existence of sins, but man is perfect from the perception of his place and rank in the creation not compared to God. Say rather man's as perfect as he ought; /His knowledge measured to his state and place, /His time a moment, and a point his space/ If to be perfect in a certain sphere. In Gods chain of beings man is above beasts and below angels. This is his place in Gods plans. Every part of the system has his role and everything should be seen as a hole because if something goes wrong, the system will break. In this universal order, man is superior to creatures due to his quality of reason. The human being should obey God because whatever is, is right. Everything follows the higher plan, and as to keep the order of the system, man should obey Gods order.

Arthur O. Loverjoy- The great chain of being. A study of the History of an Idea, Harvard University, 1933, Preface VIII

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Cldraru Delia Florentina First Year, 5th Group First language: Romanian

EPISTLE II: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Himself as an Individual
The second epistle has as main character Man as individual: Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, /The proper study of mankind is Man. Here Pope advices Man to find himself and try to understand his nature, not to pray into God. As stated before, the human being aspires to gain knowledge, but his aspiration to knowledge should be directed to himself. Man should know the limits of his power, should know everything about what he is inside, about what are his principals (according to Pope: Self- love and Reason) and how they define him and his way of living . Man is placed in the middle, between God and Beasts, positive and negative, Sceptic and Stoic, he is not God or beast, he is simply Man and inside knowledge of himself should be his aim. Man has two qualities, both being essential: Two principles in Human Nature reign,/ Selflove to urge and Reason to restrain;/ Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call; / Each works its end, to move or govern all. Self-love dominates man but is inferior to Reason. Passion is the force that determines human actions and mans nature and virtue. Every man has a passion, more powerful then other and this is why there is a difference between human reactions to the same situation, each human being has a particular ruling desire. There is a natural bound between Passion and Reason, those qualities are in an complementary relation, each having his own role: Reason is regulating human behavior and self- love gives direction to it. Man is imperfect and every passion and imperfection it is designed by God in order to suit his higher plan. There is no human being without passion and imperfections.

EPISTLE III: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Society

If the second epistle had as main character Man as individual, in the third epistle it is places man in the society, and discuses the bounds between him and his family, government, 3|Page

Cldraru Delia Florentina First Year, 5th Group First language: Romanian religion. Pope makes the transition from internal bounds (self-love and reason) to external bounds (Man- society). Univers is governed by love as the human being is governed by self-love. Look round our world; behold the chain of love/ Combining all below and all above. Here appears the idea of the Univers as a hole. Everything interferes with everything and all parts relate to the hole: All servd, all serving: nothing stands alone. Pope discusses the world with reference to reason and instinct, and says that each creature is given reason or instinct depending on witch suits the best to individual. He also makes a parallel between instinct and reason in terms of ruling a society. Creature are instinctively united by need, and reason extends into emotional connections. In terms of creation, instinct is the creation of God because at the beginning all creature had instinct and reason is the creation of man. Observing the other creature, man build his own cities, first featuring mild and natural rulers, in witch God was celebrated, and then love was redirected towards personal ambitions. It was created the society regulated by laws, governed by rational agreements. Love is the origin of true religion and government. The main idea is that instinct and reason guided mans trajectory since creation.

EPISTLE IV: Of the Nature and State of Man, With Respect to Happiness
The ultimate aim of man is happiness and this could be reached only through virtuous behavior. Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim!/ Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy name, /That something still which prompts th'eternal sigh,/ For whch we bear to live, or dare to die; Pope enumerates a serie of false notions of happiness and in the end he suggests that happiness could be reached by all and this means that happiness is equal, so man is governed by general, not specific laws. In this final epistle, Pope provides the conclusion to his work and demonstrates the relation of man to the univers and his purpose in this world. Happiness is social conditioned, so, order, peace and welfare in society are necessary conditions for man in order to obtain happiness.

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Cldraru Delia Florentina First Year, 5th Group First language: Romanian

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