Alexander Pope - An Essay on Man

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Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbor with himself.

Alexander Pope
To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel's wing, no seraph's fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.
Go wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence.

Alexander Pope
See plastic Nature working to this end, The single atoms each to other tend, Attract, attracted to, the next in place Form'd and impell'd its neighbor to embrace.

Alexander Pope
The starving chemist in his golden views Supremely blest.

Alexander Pope
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads.

Alexander Pope
Mark what unvary'd laws preserve each state, Laws wise as Nature, and as fixed as Fate.

Alexander Pope
Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher, Death, and God adore;
What future bliss He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.

Alexander Pope
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:
Or ravished with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame!

Alexander Pope
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Alexander Pope
Eye Nature's walks, shoot Folly as it flies,
And catch the Manners living as they rise.
Laugh where we must, be candid where we can;
But vindicate the ways of God to man.

Alexander Pope
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company.

Alexander Pope
Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

Alexander Pope
Pleased to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.

Alexander Pope
Why has not man a microscopic eye?
For this plain reason, man is not a fly.

Alexander Pope
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;
An honest man's the noblest work of God.

Alexander Pope
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! Not all the blood of all the Howards.

Alexander Pope
The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave.

Alexander Pope
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind; His soul proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way; Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n, Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler heav'n.

Alexander Pope
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?

Alexander Pope
What's fame? a fancy'd life in other's breath. A thing beyond us, even before our death.

Alexander Pope
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great.

Alexander Pope
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity.

Alexander Pope
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Alexander Pope
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.

Alexander Pope
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart. One self-approving hour whole years outweighs Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas; And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise? 'T is but to know how little can be known; To see all others' faults, and feel our own.

Alexander Pope
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale?

Alexander Pope
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?

Alexander Pope
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never Is, but always To be blest.

Alexander Pope
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

Alexander Pope
Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.

Alexander Pope