Page 315

Alexander Pope. (1688–1744) (continued)

3387

Together let us beat this ample field,
Try what the open, what the covert yield.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 9.

3388

Eye Nature’s walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise;
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man. 1

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 13.

3389

Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 17.

3390

’T is but a part we see, and not a whole.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 60.

3391

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,
All but the page prescrib’d, their present state.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 77.

3392

Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 83.

3393

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 87.

3394

Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest. 2
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 95.

3395

Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor’d 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.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 99.

3396

But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.

Essay on Man. Epistle i. Line 111.

3397

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.

Note 1.
See Milton, Quotation 218. [back]

Note 2.
Thus we never live, but we hope to live; and always disposing ourselves to be happy.—Blaise Pascal: Thoughts, chap. v. 2. [back]

Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -CONCORDANCE INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD