An Essay on Man - Alexander Pope
pg. 344...
- Pope
discusses the nature of man. He seems to have a very low opinion of man
and I would have to agree. Men are greedy, selfish, and I don’t just mean
the gender, I mean humanity in general. Especially those in power.
- The
argument is partly that man has forgotten their place and are not all
powerful in comparison to nature, or God in this case (344). The era in
which this was written, religion was a key role in decision making. Even
if religion, God, and state should all be separated, there are still
religious influences that factor into decision making, and one who went
against the moral teachings of Christianity or Catholicism, were
discredited (as we see here) and were seen as ungodly men. Being seen as
such during that time was next to being an outcast.
- He
discusses how the current system of government should be destroyed (345).
Stating that if any part is broken, then the whole be so too. He went to
the extreme and spoke about throwing out the whole thing if any one bit
was broken. This is much how our US Constitution was formed. Throw the
whole thing out and begin again.
- He
spoke of the hypocrisy of expectations and others actions. Also drawing a
point to the men who would preach of angelic behavior, yet stoop to
violence or act like a brute (345). This seemed to indicate his feelings
towards wars. Though this is merely my speculation. You cannot preach to
love thy neighbor and want to blow cannons through them when you disagree
over boarders or trade.
I truly enjoyed the
reading as a whole, but mainly this passage-
"The Pride of
aiming at more knowledge, and pretending to more perfection, the cause of man's
error and misery. The impiety of putting himself in the place of God, and
judging of the fitness or unfitness, perfection or imperfection, justice or
injustice of his dispensations." (344).
Some of the text was a
bit hard to understand. But enjoyable non the less.
The use of descriptive
words weaved an image that was very vivid. He used words like
Maze
Pride
Ambition
Candid
Wild
Mighty
Suns, Star, Universe
Immensity
Words both vast and
minuscule, painting an image of diverse ways that the whole of society and the
universe work together as a whole.
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