Tagged: Epistle 1

The intro of Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man, addressed to Lord Henry St. John Bolingbroke

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

“Presumptuous man! the reason wouldst thou find, why form’d so weak, so little, and so blind?”

“Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of Fate, all but the page prescribed …”

“Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense weigh thy opinion against Providence…”

“Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine, Earth for whose use… “

“What would this Man? Now upward will he soar, and, little less than angel, would be more…”

“Far as creation’s ample range extends, the scale of sensual, mental powers ascends…”

“See through this air, this ocean, and this earth…”