"Hope springs eternal in the human breast..."
"In Pride, in reasoning Pride, our error lies; All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies. Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes, Men would be Angels, Angels would be Gods. Aspiring to be Gods, if Angles fell, Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebel: And who but wishes to invert the laws Of ORDER, sins against the Eternal Cause.
"From pride, from pride, our very reasoning springs; Account for moral, as for natural things: Why charge we Heaven in those, in these acquit? In both, to reason right is to submit."
"....The general ORDER, since the whole began, Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man."
I've gotta think about these quotes. I'm wondering if perhaps in that final line the author was taking the Christian worldview and hinting that because of the order of nature, every man is "without excuse". I like the rhyme schemes and deep concepts though I'm still trying to decide if I agree with the original intent of the author. See the final line could be saying that Man is God in which case, I would disagree.
Excerpts taken from Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man" included in The Norton Anthology Western Lit. book Eighth Edition Vol. 2 Copyright 2006
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