If the test of poetry were the power of expressing a theory more closely
and pointedly than prose, such writing would take a very high place.
Some popular philosophers would make a sounding chapter out of those
sixteen lines.
The Essay on Man brought Pope into difficulties. The central thesis,
"whatever is is right," might be understood in various senses, and in
some sense it would be accepted by every theist. But, in Bolingbroke's
teaching, it received a heterodox application, and in Pope's imperfect
version of Bolingbroke the taint was not removed. The logical outcome of
the rationalistic theory of the time was some form of pantheism, and the
tendency is still more marked in a poetical statement, where it was
difficult to state the refined distinctions by which the conclusion is
averted. When theology is regarded as demonstrable by reason, the need
of a revelation ceases to be obvious. The optimistic view which sees the
proof of divine order in the vast harmony of the whole visible world,
throws into the background the darker side of the universe reflected in
the theological doctrines of human corruption, and the consequent need
of a future judgment in separation of good from evil. I need not inquire
whether any optimistic theory is really tenable; but the popular version
of the creed involved the attempt to ignore the evils under which all
creation groans, and produced in different minds the powerful retort of
Butler's Analogy, and the biting sarcasm of Voltaire's Candide.
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