Hope

Essay 3 from Pope's An Essay on Man really stood out to me. I see a connection here with the Carpe Diem ideas that we spoke about earlier in the semester. Pope offers the idea that perhaps we wouldn't live our life to its fullest if we knew of things beyond our "present state"(line 78). I don't think he's implying that we should only live in the moment but he is simply offering that the knowledge of certain things might change our state for the worse.

Perhaps I only see it because I'm looking for it, but there is a naturalist connection between God, Man and life. Because we can't know what life will bring or what fruits Death will offer, it seems best not to dwell on them but to continue living with the hope that blessings are to come. If nothing else, death will be a learning experience for us just as is life.

Perhaps the most moving lines are 95-96:
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blessed"

I admire the thinking of Pope's time where science is being explored and accepted but God is not forgotten, rather God is being found in the depths of science. Pope is able to refer to the universe and and the planets but still put forth that God is over all.