Evening star., 1925-03-02
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Even Homer nodded; Pope grows
boresome.
The third epistle of the Essay on
Man is not as snappy reading as the
first and second sections, something
not to be wondered at when the ma
ture of such poetic writing Is taken
into account.
Having held the interest of the
reader through the first two epistles
Pope would not have been human ha d
ne not allowed it to lag bit for a
time. He catches it up again, how
ever, in the fourth and concluding
part.
The THIRD epistle is concerned main
ly with IA conception of a legendary
golden age of man, when beasts and
men walked together, ''joint tenants
of the shade" This was a favorite
conception of some of the older
writer's.
Yet Lucretius, the great Roman
poet, as well as Horace, depicted the
early struggles of mankind in much
the same way that the modern the
ories of evolution picture them. Pope
read these earlier poets, then went
ahead calmly with his conception OF
a state of nature" in which all was
happiness and accord.
Perhaps, after the early uprising
OF men, there, was Il time in which
universal peace reigned at some spot
in the world. The idea of a golden
age, as set forth in the fables of At
lantls, the lost land, seems to show
that men hugged to themselves such
a theme, If not a reality, then a dear
hope.
Maybe Egypt for a time enjoyed
such a golden age of accord, Egypt
the great land of ancient times. the
teeming cradle OF much that Is still
with us.
That early man did not lead a
blameless life, however. most OF us
have good reasons to think. Even
the Bible shows friction in the Gar
den of Eden and the staying OF Abel
by Cain.
Pope's account Of the growth Of So
ciety, laws, religions governments, is
rather more poetic than exact.
He makes the voice of nature
speak to that good creature, early
man, as follows:
Go. from the creatures the Instructions take;
Learn from the birds what food the thickets
yield
Learn from the beasts the pbysic Of the
Thy arts Of building from the bee receive;
Learn of the mole TO plow, the worm TO
weavei
Learn of the little nautilus TO sail.
Spread the thin oar and catch the driving
gale.
Learn each small peoples genius. policies.
The ants republic and the realm of bees.
The concluding verses OF the third
epistle are the be ST in 1t:
For modes of faith let graceIess zealots fight
His can't be wrong whose life is In the right.
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity.
All must be false that thwart this great
And all of God that bless mankind or mend.
Man, like the .gen'rous vine. supported lives.
The strength he gains is from the embrace he
gives.
x X 4
Pope snaps back into it, with the
fourth epistle, in which he considers
the nature and state of man with
respect to happiness.
Oh. happiness! Our beings end and aiml
Pope agrees with Solomon and
countless others of the speakers and
writer's of all ages and races that
happiness is the aim of men.
Not simply a useless happiness, or
a happiness which seeks bodily graft
fications alone, but happiness which
had considered the whole extent of
life and seen that the prophet was
right when he said:
do good. not evil. that ye may
live"
That ye may live! To get the most
out Of life. he says, one has to be
somewhat decent. The game of life
has certain rules which ought to be
obeyed, not only for the sake of the
Master OF the Game. but also for
the benefit of the obeyer.
The prophet believe 1t was MI
cah-did not say, DO good because