No More Learning

'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. But Pope may have had in
mind the saying of Christ. "the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. " The hairs are spoken of here as the least important part of
the body; the heart, on the other hand, has always been thought of as
the most important organ. There is, therefore, a real antithesis between
the two.


'278 Seraph . . . burns:'

the seraphim according to old commentators are on fire with the love of
God.


'280 equals all:'

makes all things equal. This does not seem consistent with the idea of
the gradations of existence which Pope has been preaching throughout
this Epistle. Possibly it means that all things high and low are filled
alike with the divine spirit and in this sense all things are equal. But
one must not expect to find exact and consistent philosophy in the
'Essay on Man'.