In Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man" Epistle one the speaker begins by observing the world and addressing important things. The given circumstance is that God does exist and is the best. In line six he tells us that life is a "mighty maze" but there is a purpose. The reason why man stumbles through the maze is so he can determine the nature of the world in which he lives. He can find out how everything ties together. "What can we reason, but from what we know?" (l 18) Pope is asking, how can there be a loving God? And in line 22 he says that we can't know everything, we are limited.

In the second stanza Pope brings focus to the presumptuous man. What makes this man presumptuous is that he shouldn't be disturbed that he cannot figure out all of life's mysteries immediately. He as

Both Pope and Johnson choose to use verse to write their ideas. Pope's reason for doing this is because it strikes the reader more strongly at first and is better retained by him afterwards. Also he felt he could express himself more shortly this way. Johnson chooses this form because it is an Imitation of Juvenal's tenth satire which was originally written in verse. Pope's first epistle asserts the essential order and goodness of the universe and the rightness of our place in it. Johnson presents the moral problem of human wishes and the possibility of attaining them. Then he shows us the consequences of attaining those wishes. Both of these poems show us the will of mankind and his being on earth but they express different parts of man and different circumstances.

Next he proceeds to talk about many other vanities but capitalizes them all as if animate things and calls them all she, "Reason, Doubt, Novelty, Sloth, Beauty, Melancholy". All of these are things a scholars processes, "There mark what ills the scholars life assails," (l 159).

Then he remarks about the Greeks and their desire to conquer the Britons. The Greek took bribes and carried out the wishes of other and perhaps not his true heart. He ties this in with other conquerors and warriors and how their pride is most important. They are anxious to fight but when they are defeated his pride is hurt, "Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day: the vanquished hero leaves his broken bands" (ll 210-11). He mentions countless other big conquers and how they attempt to fight the weak and are defeated. Their pride is shot down, And dreaded losses aggravate his pains:" (l 286).

In the third part Pope reflects God's love and believes in a kind God, "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate" (l 77). He then goes on to say that what we know we know because of God's kindness and we are blind to our futures. But then he tells us to accept these things instead of wonder, "Hope humble then;...Wait the great teacher death, and God adore. Finally in this part he compares the American Indians way of life and putts them higher then the British because they put away meaner ambitions and do not ask the questions that other men do.

In the last part of Pope's first epistle he ties together that some parts may seem absurd but it is part of the general frame. Even man is part of a giant whole. We cannot know what this picture is nor could we understand it. Nature extends through the universe and operates on its own. He concludes his

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Approximate Word count = 1702
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)