An Essay on Man

Alexander Pope was considered a literary genius in 18th century England.  Although his early life was uneasy due to his Catholicism in a time of the Protestant regime of William and Mary (87), his essays and philosophical poetry brought him to the literary forefront.  Pope’s “An Essay on Man” attempts to reconcile the belief of a God designed universe with the existence of evil and confusion in the world to promote an acceptance of divine order.  He maintains that there is a divine plan for everything that occurs in life and nature and if humans knew too much of the reasoning of God behind those events, they would be robbed of the hope and happiness that faith provides and knowledge destroys.

In “An Essay on Man”, Pope asserts that there is so much more happening in the Universe than one eye can see. He states “Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown, touches some wheel, or verges to some goal, ‘tis but a part we see, and not a whole”(lines 58-60).  Man cannot begin to understand a situation he only knows a small part of and should leave that understanding to God who is prepared to shoulder that burden.  Pope expands this thought further when he notes “Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate, all but the pages prescribed, their present state” (Puchner, 77-78).  If man knew all that lied in store for him, positive or negative, where would the blessing of hope lie?  In order to have hope for the future, man must put his fate in the hands of God, “hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never Is, but always To be blest” (Puchner, 95-96).

The mystery of our universe’s perfect order also attests to a divine law in the midst of what could be misconstrued by man as disorder.  “Each beast, each insect, happy in its own: is Heaven unkind to Man, and Man alone” (lines 185-186) challenges that man’s pursuit of knowledge of everything that exists, will exist and has existed, has fleeced him of contentment, in turn creating chaos.  Instead of finding joy in life as it occurs, he wants to understand the rhyme and reason of everything that should be left to God.  When man is always searching for answers, Pope asserts “who finds not Providence all good and wise, alike in what it gives, and what denies” (lines 205-206). 

The ultimate argument of Pope’s assertion of a divine order is his description of the fine tandem of the universe.  “Let Earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, Planets and Suns run lawless through the sky; let ruling angels from their spheres be hurled, Being on Being wrecked, and World on World” (lines 251-254).  How else can this delicate balance be explained if not for the existence of God?  The answer to this question was addressed in a conference I attended held by an apologetics group called “Come Reason”.  Apologetics ministries give Christians the tools to explain their religion and their faith with non-believers or skeptics.  The topic for the session I attended was how to explain the existence of God with all the chaos of today’s world, with chaos being primarily evil.  In much the same manner Pope used science and religion to affirm divine order in “An Essay on Man”, the apologetics minister asked us to consider the improbability that a universe such as ours could just occur out of nothing.  How could such a delicate balance of elements occur to support human life without the hand of a divine being, God or otherwise? Pope describes the “vast chain of Being, from which God began, Nature’s ethereal, human, angel, man...” (lines 237-238). The arguments provided both by the apologetics and minister and Pope are compelling and thought provoking in determining whether God exists. 

Works Cited

Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." Puchner, Martin. The Norton Anthology of World Literature 1650 to Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 90-97. Print.

Puchner, Martin. "Alexander Pope 1688-1744." The Norton Anthology of World
        Literature, 1650-Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 86-        89. Print.