The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10): Poetry - Volume 2Pope, Alexander
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The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 2 (of 10): Poetry - Volume 2
Pope, Alexander
English poetry -- 18th century
The fruit would inevitably betray the taint of its origin, and Pope was
mistaken in supposing that a vitiated motive could keep steady to
outward virtue. "Hate," to which Pope ascribes the singular power of
producing "crops of wit and honesty," must repudiate love, or whatever
else did not subserve the one unamiable passion; and a man all hate,--a
frantic enemy to every kind and tender emotion,--would be hateful,
however honest and witty. "Anger" would renounce the meek and
charitable, "pride" the humble virtues, together with any other virtue
which did not minister to inordinate anger and pride. Neither passion
would assume a moral aspect. "I observe," says Baxter, "that almost all
men, good and bad, do loathe the proud, and love the humble." "Zeal" is
the prerogative ascribed to "anger," and the zealot who was urged on by
fierce unflagging anger would be a terror and a scourge. Pope himself
has drawn a horrible picture of the miseries inflicted upon humanity
when "zeal, not charity, became the guide" of the teachers of
religion.[850] "Sloth" supplies us with "philosophy," or the apathetic
submission to evils we are too lazy to correct, which is the virtue that
induces thousands to live in dirt and ignorance, because cleanliness and
knowledge are not to be had without industry. "Avarice" is credited with
the faculty of "supplying prudence," which is as true as to say that a
burning fever supplies a moderate, healthy temperature. The moral system
which confines man to the counterfeit "virtue nearest allied to his
vice," or ruling passion, is an extravagant libel upon the virtuous, and
outrageous flattery of the vicious.[851]
Mandeville took his morality from La Rochefoucauld, and Pope took hints
from both. The principle common to the three is the motto which La
Rochefoucauld placed at the head of his Maxims, "Our virtues are usually
vices in disguise." The doctrine, when expressed in La Rochefoucauld's
language, was condemned by Pope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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