Lines on Pride from Alexander Pope’s An Essay On Man

Last updated on: January 24, 2017 at 6:16 pm by Frank Weathers

Lines on Pride from Alexander Pope’s An Essay On Man 2017-01-24T18:16:25-05:00 Frank Weathers

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Often times cataclysmic events leave us at a loss. We have feelings and thoughts but struggle to put them into words. Some have been blessed with the gift of the poetic art. These painters of images with words serve to bring the ineffable into focus in our minds.

Their art is subtle and yet as effective to our mind’s eye as the rendering of portraits by pointillists. Alexander Pope is a master of this form of art. I’ve shared some his work in this space before. Today, I stumbled across a few of his lines on the sin of pride in a most unlikely place.

As pride often goes before the fall, I feel compelled to share them with you today. Especially after this horrendous story posted here earlier this morning.

Here then, but for the grace of God, go I.

From the First Epistle of An Essay On Man, Cantos IV and V

Go, wiser thou! and in thy scale of sense
Weigh thy opinion against Providence;
Call imperfection what thou fancy’st such,
Say, here he gives too little, there too much;
Destroy all creatures for thy sport or gust;
Yet cry, if man’s unhappy, God’s unjust;
If man alone engross not Heaven’s high care,
Alone made perfect here, immortal there;
Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,
Re-judge his justice, be the god of God!
In pride, in reas’ning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes,
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel;
And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of order, sins against th’ Eternal Cause.
Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine,
Earth for whose use? Pride answers, “Tis for mine:
“For me kind Nature wakes her genial power,
“Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower;
“Annual for me, the grape, the rose renew
“The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew;
“For me, the mine a thousand treasures brings;
“For me, health gushes from a thousand springs;
“Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;
“My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.”
But errs not nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow, or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
” No (’tis reply’d) the first Almighty Cause
” Acts not by partial, but by general laws;
” Th’ exceptions few; some change since all began:
” And what created perfect?” Why then man?
If the great end be human happiness,
Then nature deviates: and can man do less?
As much that end a constant course requires
Of showers and sunshine, as of man’s desires;
As much eternal springs and cloudless skies,
As men for ever temp’rate, calm, and wise.
If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven’s design,
Why then a Borgia or a Catiline ?
Who knows but he, whose hand the lightning forms,
Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms,
Pours fierce ambition in a Cesar’s mind,
Or turns young Ammon loose to scourge mankind?
From pride, from pride, our very reas’ning springs;
Account for moral, as for nat’ral things:
Why charge we Heav’n in those, in these acquit?
In both, to reason right, is to submit.
Better for us, perhaps it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos’d the mind;
But all subsists by elemental strife;
And passions are the elements of life.
The gen’ral order, since the whole began,
Is kept in nature, and is kept in man.

Previous Post

December 8, 2011

What Happens When The Dignity Of Human Beings is Lost

Next Post

December 8, 2011 Suminagashi! Gesundheit?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Blog News Conversion Story Culture Learning Living Nature Prayer Uncategorized Working

Select a Month June 2016 May 2016 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Abraham's firstborn son?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaac Jacob Esau Ishmael