The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq (Volume 3); Moral Essays

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1752. Excerpt: ... EPISTLE III. J T T T H O ftall decide, when Doctors disagree, And soundest Casuists doubt, like you and me? You hold the word, from Jove to Momus giv'n, That Man was made the standing jest of Heav'n; Comment A R Y. Epistle III. This Epistle was written after a violent outcry against our Author, on a supposition that he had ridiculed 3 worthy nobleman merely for his wrong taste. He justisied himself upon that article in a letter to the Earl of Burlington; at the end of which are these words: I have learnt that there are some who would rather be wicked than ridiculous; and there' fore it may be faser to attack vices than follies. I will therefore leave my betters in the quite possession of their idols, their groves, and their high places; and change my subject from their pride to their meanness, from their vanities to their miseries; and as the only certain way to avoid misconstructions, to lessen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured applications, I may probably, in my next, make use of real names instead of fictitious ones. P. Ver. J.. Who Jhall'decide, &c The address of the Introduction (from f i to 21) is remarkable: The poet represents himself and the noble Lord his friend, as in a converfation, philosophifing on thefinal cause of Riches; and it proceeds by way of Notes. Ver. 3. Momus giv'n, Amongst the earliest abuses of reason, one of the first was to cavil at the ways of Providence. But as, in those times, every Vice as well as Virtue, had its Patron-God, Momus came to be at the head of the old Freethinkers. Him, the Mythologists very ingeniously made the Son of Sleep zn& Night, and so, consequently, half-brother to Dhlnrss. But having been much employed, in after ay;es, by And Gold but sent to keep the fools in play, 5 For some to he...