Publisher's Synopsis
Alexander Pope published a poem titled "An Essay on Man: Moral Essays and Satires" between 1733 and 1734. The opening line, "Awake, St. John," refers to Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, which is pronounced, "Bull-en-brook." In the opening lines of Paradise Lost, John Milton claims that he will "justify the methods of God to men," and this is an attempt to "vindicate the ways of God to man" (l.16) (1.26). It is focused on the natural order that God established for mankind. Man cannot protest about his place in the great chain of being since he cannot understand God's designs (ll. 33-34). Instead, he must accept that "Whatever is, is right," a subject that Voltaire parodied in Candide (1759). It spread optimistic thought more broadly than any other book throughout England and the rest of Europe. Pope intended for his Essay on Man and Moral Epistles to serve as the constituent pieces of poetic ethical philosophy. Ethic Epistles and Moral Essays are a couple of additional names for Moral Epistles. An Essay on Man was widely praised when it was first published in Europe. The most majestic didactic poetry is ever written in any language.
