No More Learning

'69-76'

Pope now goes on to argue that on the basis of what has been proved we
ought not to regard man as an imperfect being, but rather as one who is
perfectly adapted to his place in the universe. His knowledge, for
example, is measured by the brief time he has to live and the brief
space he can survey.


'69 fault:'

pronounced in Pope's day as rhyming with "ought. "


'73-76'

These lines are really out of place. They first appeared after l. 98;
then Pope struck them out altogether. Just before his death he put them
into their present place on the advice of Warburton, who probably
approved of them because of their reference to a future state of bliss.
It is plain that they interfere with the regular argument of the poem.


'79'

This line is grammatically dependent upon "hides," l. 77.


'81 riot:'

used here in the sense of "luxurious life. " The lamb is slain to provide
for some feast.


'86 Heav'n:'

'i. e. ' God.
Hence the relative "who" in the next line.


'92-98'

Pope urges man to comfort himself with hope, seeing that he cannot know
the future.


'93 "What future bliss:"

the words "shall be" are to be understood after this phrase.


'96'

Point out the exact meaning of this familiar line.


'97 from home:'

away from its true home, the life to come. This line represents one of
the alterations which Warburton induced Pope to make. The poet first
wrote "confined at home," thus representing this life as the home of the
soul. His friend led him to make the change in order to express more
clearly his belief in the soul's immortality.


'89'

Show how "rests" and "expatiates" in this line contrast with "uneasy"
and "confined" in l. 97.


'99-112'

In this famous passage Pope shows how the belief in immortality is found
even among the most ignorant tribes. This is to Pope an argument that
the soul must be immortal, since only Nature, or God working through
Nature, could have implanted this conception in the Indian's mind.


'102 the solar walk:'

the sun's path in the heavens.

'the milky way:'

some old philosophers held that the souls of good men went thither after
death.


Pope means that the ignorant Indian had no conception of a heaven
reserved for the just such as Greek sages and Christian believers have.
All he believes in is "an humbler heaven," where he shall be free from
the evils of this life.