No More Learning

'212'

The mole is almost blind; the lynx was supposed to be the most
keen-sighted of animals.


'213-214'

The lion was supposed by Pope to hunt by sight alone as the dog by
scent. What does he mean by "the tainted green"?


'215-216'

Fishes are almost deaf, while birds are very quick of hearing.


'219 nice:'

keenly discriminating.

'healing dew:'

healthful honey.


'221-222'

The power of instinct which is barely perceptible in the pig amounts
almost to the power of reason in the elephant.


'223 barrier:'

pronounced like the French 'barriere', as a word of two syllables with
the accent on the last.


'226 Sense . . . Thought:'

sensation and reason.


'227 Middle natures:'

intermediate natures, which long to unite with those above or below
them. The exact sense is not very clear.


'233-258'

In this passage Pope insists that the chain of being stretches unbroken
from God through man to the lowest created forms.
If any link in this
chain were broken, as would happen if men possessed higher faculties
than are now assigned them, the whole universe would be thrown into
confusion. This is another answer to those who complain of the
imperfections of man's nature.


'234 quick:'

living. Pope does not discriminate between organic and inorganic matter.


'240 glass:'

microscope.


'242-244'

Inferior beings might then press upon us. If they did not, a fatal gap
would be left by our ascent in the scale.


'247 each system:'

Pope imagines the universe to be composed of an infinite number of
systems like ours. Since each of these is essential to the orderly
arrangement of the universe, any disorder such as he has imagined would
have infinitely destructive consequences. These are described in ll.
251-257.


'267-280'

In these lines Pope speaks of God as the soul of the world in an
outburst of really exalted enthusiasm that is rare enough in his work.


'269 That:'

a relative pronoun referring to "soul," l. 268.


'270 th' ethereal frame:' the heavens.


'276 as perfect in a hair as heart:'

this has been called "a vile antithesis," on the ground that there is no
reason why hair and heart should be contrasted.