Or ask of yonder argent* fields above
Why Jove's satellites are less than Jove.
Of systems possible, if 'tis confest
That Wisdom Infinite* must form the best,
Where all must full or not coherent* be,
And all that rises, rise in due degree;
Then, in the scale of reasoning life, 'tis plain,
There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man:
And all the question (wrangle e'er so long)
Is only this, if God has placed him wrong?
Respecting man, whatever wrong we call
May, must, be right, as relative to all.

In human works, though labored on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;
In God's, one single can its end produce;
Yet serves to second,' * too, some other use.

41. yonder argent fields. "Argent," resembling silver; hence shining, brilliant. Compare Milton's phrase, "those argent fields."

42. satellites time

has it, Jove's) four satellites were discovered by Galileo in 1610.

45. full, complete in every intermedi-
ate rank and degree.

- pronounced in Pope's
sa-tel'-li-tes.1 Jupiter's 47. reasoning life = rational beings.

(or, as Pope, for metre's sake, | 50. if

whether.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-45. coherent. Show that this word retains here its

original meaning.

46. rise. What auxiliary is understood?

47, 48. Query as to the rhyme.

48. man. Supply the ellipsis.

49. e'er so long. What part of speech is "long?"-What does "so" modify? What does "e'er" modify?

50, 51. wrong. 54. scarce.

What part of speech is "wrong" in line 50? In 51?

What is the prose form of this word?

55. one single.

56. to second.

Supply the ellipsis.

What part of speech? Etymology and meaning?

1 In Webster's Dictionary it is stated that this pronunciation is given by "an unusual stretch of poetic license;" but this is an error: the word was, in Pope's time, scarcely naturalized, and still retained the original classical pro nunciation,

So man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal;
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.

When the proud steed shall know why man restrains
His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains;
When the dull ox, why now he breaks the clod,

Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god:
Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend
His actions', passions', being's, use and end;
Why doing, suffering, checked, impelled; and why
This hour a slave, the next a deity.

Then say not man 's imperfect, Heaven in fault;
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,
What matter, soon or late, or here or there?
The blest to-day is as completely so
As who began a thousand years ago.

64. Egypt's god. The reference is to

the sacred bull kept at Mem-
phis, and called Apis by the
Greeks.

70. as he ought: that is, as he ought to
be.

73-76. If to be perfect... ago. "These four lines were in the first edition

of 1732 after line 98. They are irrelevant to the argument, and Pope struck them out accordingly in the edition revised by himself in 1740. Warburton replaced them in the quarto of 1743 in their present position." -PATTIESON: Pope's Essay.

75

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-58. second. What part of speech? Etymology and meaning?

59. Touches some wheel. Explain the metaphor.

61-68. When the proud steed... a deity. Supply the ellipsis, and analyze this sentence.

69. Then say.
What two clauses are the object of "say?"
70. Say, rather. What four clauses are the object of "say?"
73. If to be perfect. Supply the ellipsis.

73, 74. Query as to the rhyme.

76. As who began, etc.

What pronoun and what verb are here understood?

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescribed, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits,* know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,

And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.
O blindness to the future! kindly given,
That each may fill the circle marked by Heaven:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,

Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

80

85

90

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions* soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.

What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest:

70. From brutes, etc.: that is, Heaven hides from brutes what men know, etc.

8o. could suffer being could suffer ex

=

istence, suffer to be ("being," a gerund or infinitive in -ing). 93. What future bliss. Supply shall

be.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.—77. hides the book of fate. Change from figurative

to plain language.

78. All. Object of what verb?

79. Supply the ellipsis (two words).

81, 82. The lamb... Had he.

(See Def. 42.)

What figure of syntax is here exemplified?

81-84. Express in your own language the argument from example here given.

87, 88. Does this mean that the fall of a hero is of no more account in the eye of God than the bursting of a bubble? What, then, is the meaning? 87-90. Who sees... world. Point out three instances of antithesis in these lines.

91-92. Hope humbly... adore. What kind of sentence grammatically? How many principal propositions does it contain?

92. teacher.

What is the force of "teacher" as applied to death? 96. Man never, etc.

What is the figure of speech? (See Def. 18.)

95

The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo,* the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or Milky Way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has given,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heaven;
Some safer world in depth of woods embraced,
Some happier island in the watery waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire ;

He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.*

II.

Go, wiser thou! and, in thy scale of sense,
Weigh thy opinion against Providence ;
Call imperfection what thou fanciest such,
Say here he gives too little, there too much :
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust,*
Yet cry, If man 's unhappy, God's unjust;

IOC

103

110

115

97. home, the future life.

102. solar walk, the ecliptic, or path of the earth around the sun.

III. that equal sky that sky where
equality reigns.

117. gust, pleasure, enjoyment.

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-103. simple.

Give the etymology of this word.

104. humbler heaven. Humbler than what? 106. happier island. Happier than what?

108. No flends torment, etc. Explain this by reference to the early history of the Spaniards in America.

112. It is an interesting fact that this famous passage (99-112) was com posed by Pope on the basis of an account of the beliefs of the Red Man writ ten by William Penn,

If man alone engross not Heaven's high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there:
Snatch from His hand the balance and the rod,
Rejudge his justice, be the god of God.

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 angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel :
And who but wishes to invert the laws

120

125

Of order, sins against the Eternal Cause.

Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine,

Earth for whose use ? Pride answers, ""Tis for mine:

For me kind nature wakes her genial power,

Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower;

Annual for me, the grape, the rose, renew

The juice nectareous* and the balmy dew;
For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;

For me, health gushes from a thousand springs;
Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;

My footstool earth, my canopy* the skies."

But errs not nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid✶ deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?

120. immortal there: that is, in the fut

ure life.

121. His hand

to be angels, and to that end rebel against destiny.

Heaven's hand; that 135. Annual = annually.

is, God's hand. 125. Pride still, etc. The idea seems to be that, as of old, in their pride the angels would be gods, so even man in his pride "is aiming at the blest abodes."

141. But errs not, etc.: that is, does not nature deviate from this supposed purpose or end of hers (see previous lines), so highly flattering to man's vani

ty?

127. if angels fell. The "if" is here a 143, 144. When earthquakes... deep!

little misleading: the thought is

that while the angels aspired to
be gods and fell, so men aspire

Shortly before Pope wrote the Essay, Chili was visited by a series of terrible earthquakes,

130

135

140