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
I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from
ver. 19 to 26. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver.
29. God intends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social,
since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs
by general, not particular laws, ver. 35. As it is necessary for order,
and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be
unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 49. But
notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind
is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver.
67. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent
with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the
advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the
calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 93. IV. The folly of expecting
that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver.
121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are,
they must be happiest, ver. 131, &c. VI. That external goods are not the
proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue,
ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue:
instanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205.
Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 259, &c.
With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, ver.
269, &c. VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is
universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of
virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence
here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c.
EPISTLE IV.
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