ESSAY ON MAN, The, one of the later works (1733-34) of Alexander Pope, shares with the on Criticism,' the 'Rape of the Lock,' the 'Dunciad,> the 'Epistle to Dr. Ar buthnot> and a few other poems the position of foremost place among his original works.
i It s a didactic poem of some 600 heroic coup lets grouped into four epistles and dedicated to Lord Bolingbroke, with whose brilliant but somewhat trivial philosophy it is in substantial agreement. There is probably a fixed order in the universe and definite gradations among all living things, including man, but it is pre sumption in man to attempt to define himself and to determine his place in the universe; he can only humbly submit to the decrees of Providence. The proper study, therefore, of mankind is man, in whom the outstanding characteristic is a mixture of two principles, self-love and reason, which are expressed in varying combinations of virtue and vice, which by giving men different characters, serve the ends of Providence. Reason and self-love oper
ate in the formation of Society, and its insti tutions are according to the divine purpose. This universal aim is human happiness which, though obscured by false notions of the means of attaining consists in the acquisition of virtue. This is the general law, which it is folly to think will be altered to suit man's de sires for prosperity, honors and the many ob jects of ambition of men. The philosophy is not particularly moving or consistent, and the poem is to-day best remembered for the large number of familiar quotations that it has con tributed to the common stock — °Whatever is, is right," "Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw," °Order is heaven's first law," °An honest man's the noblest work of God? °The wisest, meanest of mankind," etc. A good account is to be found in Chapter VII of Les lie Stephen's in the English Men of Letters. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER.