"1 St. John:"
Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke, Pope"s "guide, philosopher, and friend," under whose influence the "Essay on Man" was composed.
"5 expatiate:"
range, wander.
"6"
Pope says that this line alludes to the subject of this first Epistle, "the state of man here and hereafter, disposed by Providence, though to him unknown." The next two lines allude to the main topics of the three remaining epistles, "the const.i.tution of the human mind ... the temptations of misapplied self-love, and the wrong pursuits of power, pleasure, and false happiness."
"9 beat ... field:"
the metaphor is drawn from hunting. Note how it is elaborated in the following lines.
"12 blindly creep ... sightless soar:"
the first are the ignorant and indifferent; those who "sightless soar"
are the presumptuous who reason blindly about things too high for human knowledge.
"15 candid:"
lenient, free from harsh judgments.
"16"
An adaptation of a well-known line of Milton"s "Paradise Lost", l, 26.
"17-23"
Pope lays down as the basis of his system that all argument about man or G.o.d must be based upon what we know of man"s present life, and of G.o.d"s workings in this world of ours.
"29 this frame:"
the universe. Compare "Hamlet", II, ii, 310, "this goodly frame, the earth."
"30 nice dependencies:"
subtle inter-relations.
"31 Gradations just:"
exact shades of difference.
"32 a part:"
the mind of man, which is but a part of the whole universe.
"33 the great chain:"
according to Homer, Jove, the supreme G.o.d, sustained the whole creation by a golden chain. Milton also makes use of this idea of the visible universe as linked to heaven in a golden chain, "Paradise Lost", II, 1004-1006, and 1051-1052.
"41 yonder argent fields:"
the sky spangled with silvery stars. The phrase is borrowed from Milton, "Paradise Lost", III, 460.
"42 Jove:"
the planet Jupiter.
"satellites:"
Pope preserves here the Latin p.r.o.nunciation, four syllables, with the accent on the antepenult.
"43-50."
Pope here takes it for granted that our universe, inasmuch as it is the work of G.o.d"s infinite wisdom, must be the best system possible. If this be granted, he says, it is plain that man must have a place somewhere in this system, and the only question is whether "G.o.d has placed him wrong."
"45"
Every grade in creation must be complete, so as to join with that which is beneath and with that which is above it or there would be a lack of coherency, a break, somewhere in the system.
"47 reas"ning life:"
conscious mental life.
"51-60"
Pope argues here that since man is a part of the best possible system, whatever seems wrong in him must be right when considered in relation to the whole order of the universe. It is only our ignorance of this order which keeps us from realizing this fact.