A Critical and philosophical Commentay on Mr. Pope's Essay on Man. In which is contain'd a Vindication of the said Essay from the misrepresentations of Mr. de Resnel, the French translator, and of Mr. de Crousaz ... the commentator

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J. and P. Knapton, 1742 - 188 pages

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Page 67 - Created half to rise, and half to fall: Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd; The glory jest, and riddle of the world!
Page 116 - Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
Page 63 - Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; In doubt to deem himself a God, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err...
Page 142 - Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common sense, and common ease. Remember, man, the universal cause Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws ; And makes what happiness we justly call Subsist not in the good of one, but all.
Page 114 - Nor think, in Nature's state they blindly trod; The state of Nature was the reign of God: Self-love and social at her birth began, Union the bond of all things, and of man.
Page 162 - Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. Who noble ends by noble means obtains, Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains, Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath, A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Page 79 - Two principles in human nature reign; Self-love, to urge, and Reason, to restrain; Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, Each works its end, to move or govern all: And to their proper operation still, Ascribe all good; to their improper, ill.
Page 51 - Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives through all life, extends through all extent; Spreads undivided, operates unspent! Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part. As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect in vile man that mourns.
Page 17 - Were there all harmony, all virtue here: That never air or ocean felt the wind, That never passion discomposed the mind: But all subsists by elemental strife; And passions are the elements of life.
Page 137 - The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. On their own axis as the planets run, Yet make at once their circle round the sun; So two consistent motions act the soul; And one regards itself, and one the whole. Thus God and nature link'd the gen'ral frame, And bade self-love and social be the same.

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