Such reading is the
condition
precedent to
all true judgment of a writer's work.
all true judgment of a writer's work.
Pope - Essay on Man
The fourth (to the
Earl of Burlington) was first published in 1731, its title then being "Of
Taste;" the third (to Lord Bathurst) followed in 1732, the year of the
publication of the first two Epistles on the "Essay on Man. " In 1733,
the year of publication of the Third Epistle of the "Essay on Man," Pope
published his Moral Essay of the "Characters of Men. " In 1734 followed
the Fourth Epistle of the "Essay on Man;" and in 1735 the "Characters of
Women," addressed to Martha Blount, the woman whom Pope loved, though he
was withheld by a frail body from marriage. Thus the two works were, in
fact, produced together, parts of one design.
Pope's Satires, which still deal with characters of men, followed
immediately, some appearing in a folio in January, 1735. That part of
the epistle to Arbuthnot forming the Prologue, which gives a character of
Addison, as Atticus, had been sketched more than twelve years before, and
earlier sketches of some smaller critics were introduced; but the
beginning and the end, the parts in which Pope spoke of himself and of
his father and mother, and his friend Dr. Arbuthnot, were written in 1733
and 1734. Then follows an imitation of the first Epistle of the Second
Book of the Satires of Horace, concerning which Pope told a friend, "When
I had a fever one winter in town that confined me to my room for five or
six days, Lord Bolingbroke, who came to see me, happened to take up a
Horace that lay on the table, and, turning it over, dropped on the first
satire in the Second Book, which begins, 'Sunt, quibus in satira. ' He
observed how well that would suit my case if I were to imitate it in
English. After he was gone, I read it over, translated it in a morning
or two, and sent it to press in a week or a fortnight after" (February,
1733). "And this was the occasion of my imitating some others of the
Satires and Epistles. " The two dialogues finally used as the Epilogue to
the Satires were first published in the year 1738, with the name of the
year, "Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-eight. " Samuel Johnson's "London,"
his first bid for recognition, appeared in the same week, and excited in
Pope not admiration only, but some active endeavour to be useful to its
author.
The reader of Pope, as of every author, is advised to begin by letting
him say what he has to say, in his own manner to an open mind that seeks
only to receive the impressions which the writer wishes to convey. First
let the mind and spirit of the writer come into free, full contact with
the mind and spirit of the reader, whose attitude at the first reading
should be simply receptive.
Such reading is the condition precedent to
all true judgment of a writer's work. All criticism that is not so
grounded spreads as fog over a poet's page. Read, reader, for yourself,
without once pausing to remember what you have been told to think.
H. M.
POPE'S POEMS.
AN ESSAY ON MAN.
TO H. ST. JOHN LORD BOLINGBROKE.
THE DESIGN.
Having proposed to write some pieces of Human Life and Manners, such as
(to use my Lord Bacon's expression) come home to Men's Business and
Bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering Man in
the abstract, his Nature and his State; since, to prove any moral duty,
to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or
imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know
what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end
and purpose of its being.
The science of Human Nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a few
clear points: there are not many certain truths in this world. It is
therefore in the anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body; more good
will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible
parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the
conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. The
disputes are all upon these last, and, I will venture to say, they have
less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and
have diminished the practice more than advanced the theory of Morality.
If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in
steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in passing
over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming a temperate yet not
inconsistent, and a short yet not imperfect system of Ethics.
Earl of Burlington) was first published in 1731, its title then being "Of
Taste;" the third (to Lord Bathurst) followed in 1732, the year of the
publication of the first two Epistles on the "Essay on Man. " In 1733,
the year of publication of the Third Epistle of the "Essay on Man," Pope
published his Moral Essay of the "Characters of Men. " In 1734 followed
the Fourth Epistle of the "Essay on Man;" and in 1735 the "Characters of
Women," addressed to Martha Blount, the woman whom Pope loved, though he
was withheld by a frail body from marriage. Thus the two works were, in
fact, produced together, parts of one design.
Pope's Satires, which still deal with characters of men, followed
immediately, some appearing in a folio in January, 1735. That part of
the epistle to Arbuthnot forming the Prologue, which gives a character of
Addison, as Atticus, had been sketched more than twelve years before, and
earlier sketches of some smaller critics were introduced; but the
beginning and the end, the parts in which Pope spoke of himself and of
his father and mother, and his friend Dr. Arbuthnot, were written in 1733
and 1734. Then follows an imitation of the first Epistle of the Second
Book of the Satires of Horace, concerning which Pope told a friend, "When
I had a fever one winter in town that confined me to my room for five or
six days, Lord Bolingbroke, who came to see me, happened to take up a
Horace that lay on the table, and, turning it over, dropped on the first
satire in the Second Book, which begins, 'Sunt, quibus in satira. ' He
observed how well that would suit my case if I were to imitate it in
English. After he was gone, I read it over, translated it in a morning
or two, and sent it to press in a week or a fortnight after" (February,
1733). "And this was the occasion of my imitating some others of the
Satires and Epistles. " The two dialogues finally used as the Epilogue to
the Satires were first published in the year 1738, with the name of the
year, "Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-eight. " Samuel Johnson's "London,"
his first bid for recognition, appeared in the same week, and excited in
Pope not admiration only, but some active endeavour to be useful to its
author.
The reader of Pope, as of every author, is advised to begin by letting
him say what he has to say, in his own manner to an open mind that seeks
only to receive the impressions which the writer wishes to convey. First
let the mind and spirit of the writer come into free, full contact with
the mind and spirit of the reader, whose attitude at the first reading
should be simply receptive.
Such reading is the condition precedent to
all true judgment of a writer's work. All criticism that is not so
grounded spreads as fog over a poet's page. Read, reader, for yourself,
without once pausing to remember what you have been told to think.
H. M.
POPE'S POEMS.
AN ESSAY ON MAN.
TO H. ST. JOHN LORD BOLINGBROKE.
THE DESIGN.
Having proposed to write some pieces of Human Life and Manners, such as
(to use my Lord Bacon's expression) come home to Men's Business and
Bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering Man in
the abstract, his Nature and his State; since, to prove any moral duty,
to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or
imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know
what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end
and purpose of its being.
The science of Human Nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a few
clear points: there are not many certain truths in this world. It is
therefore in the anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body; more good
will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible
parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the
conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. The
disputes are all upon these last, and, I will venture to say, they have
less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and
have diminished the practice more than advanced the theory of Morality.
If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in
steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in passing
over terms utterly unintelligible, and in forming a temperate yet not
inconsistent, and a short yet not imperfect system of Ethics.
