Your reading for Tuesday's class is Alexander Pope's Essay on Man. Please read all four epistles or sections as well as "The Design" (appears right before the argument of the first epistle), all of which you can find online through the Project Gutenberg online ebook. Do not beyond the four epistles. This ebook contains the Essay on Man as well as some of Pope's other texts (Moral Essays and Satires). Stop reading when you hit "The Universal Prayer." Even if you prefer to read the essay online, please print a copy and bring it to class on Tuesday.There are additional copies of Pope's text online: Penn State's pdf of the essay or The University of Toronto's online edited version, for example. However, Penn State's copy lacks the arguments before the epistles (think of Milton's arguments or summaries before each book of Paradise Lost) and the UT version, while it offers a very helpful annotated ebook of the first two epistles, does not provide the entire Essay on Man. Therefore, we'll use the Gutenberg online edition. You might find that pulling up the UT version--at least for the first two epistles--aids in your understanding because it offers footnotes about key lines or figures. However, you're only required to read and print the Gutenberg book.
Reading Questions:
Where do you detect a resonance with Milton's Paradise Lost?
How is Pope's "vindication" different from Milton's "justification"?
What do you notice about Pope's poetic style?
What is his basic argument? Do you find it convincing?
What "signs of the times" are there in Pope's essay? In other words, how has Enlightenment thought (science, religion, reason) affected Pope's arguments? Other influences?
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