Essay on Man | Page 3

quibus in satira.' He observed how well that would suit my case if I

were to imitate it in English. After he was gone, I read it over,
translated it in a morning or two, and sent it to press in a week or a
fortnight after" (February, 1733). "And this was the occasion of my
imitating some others of the Satires and Epistles." The two dialogues
finally used as the Epilogue to the Satires were first published in the
year 1738, with the name of the year, "Seventeen Hundred and
Thirty-eight." Samuel Johnson's "London," his first bid for recognition,
appeared in the same week, and excited in Pope not admiration only,
but some active endeavour to be useful to its author.
The reader of Pope, as of every author, is advised to begin by letting
him say what he has to say, in his own manner to an open mind that
seeks only to receive the impressions which the writer wishes to
convey. First let the mind and spirit of the writer come into free, full
contact with the mind and spirit of the reader, whose attitude at the first
reading should be simply receptive. Such reading is the condition
precedent to all true judgment of a writer's work. All criticism that is
not so grounded spreads as fog over a poet's page. Read, reader, for
yourself, without once pausing to remember what you have been told to
think. H.M.
POPE'S POEMS.
AN ESSAY ON MAN.
TO H. ST. JOHN LORD
BOLINGBROKE.
THE DESIGN.
Having proposed to write some pieces of Human Life and Manners,
such as (to use my Lord Bacon's expression) come home to Men's
Business and Bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with
considering Man in the abstract, his Nature and his State; since, to
prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the
perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary
first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the
proper end and purpose of its being.
The science of Human Nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a

few clear points: there are not many certain truths in this world. It is
therefore in the anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body; more good
will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible
parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the
conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation.
The disputes are all upon these last, and, I will venture to say, they
have less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other,
and have diminished the practice more than advanced the theory of
Morality. If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in
steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in
passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming a temperate yet
not inconsistent, and a short yet not imperfect system of Ethics.
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 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. I
was unable to treat this part of my subject more in detail, without
becoming dry and tedious; or more poetically, without sacrificing
perspicuity to ornament, without wandering from the precision, or
breaking the chain of reasoning: if any man can unite all these without
diminution of any of them I freely confess he will compass a thing
above my capacity.
What is now published is only to be considered as a general Map of
Man, marking out no more than the greater parts, their extent, their
limits, and their connection, and leaving the particular to be more fully
delineated in the charts which are to follow. Consequently, these
Epistles in their progress (if I have health and leisure to make any
progress) will be less dry, and more susceptible of poetical ornament. I
am here only opening the fountains, and clearing the passage. To
deduce the rivers, to follow them in their course, and to observe their
effects, may be a task more agreeable. P.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE I.
OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN, WITH RESPECT TO
THE UNIVERSE.
Of Man in the abstract.
I. That we can judge only with regard to our own system, being
ignorant of the relations of systems and