Moral Essays

Moral Essays (also known as Epistles to Several Persons) is a series of four poems on ethical subjects by Alexander Pope, published between 1731 and 1735.

Epistle I, To Lord Cobham (1734)

• The fate of all extremes is such,
  Men may read, as well as books, too much.
  To observations which ourselves we make,
  We grow more partial for th' observer's sake.
  • Line 9.

• That each from other differs, first confess;
  Next, that he varies from himself no less.
  • Line 19.

• Like following life through creatures you dissect,
  You lose it in the moment you detect.
  • Line 29.

• In vain sedate reflections we would make
  When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.
  • Line 39.

• Not always actions show the man: we find
  Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.
  • Line 109.

• Who combats bravely is not therefore brave,
  He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave:
  Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,—
  His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.
  • Line 115.

• 'Tis from high life high characters are drawn;
  A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
  • Line 135.

• 'Tis education forms the common mind:
  Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
  • Line 149.

• Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
  Tenets with books, and principles with times.
  • Line 172. Compare: "Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis" (translated: "All things change, and we change with them"), Matthias Borbonius, Deliciæ Poetarum Germanorum, i, 685.

• "Odious! in woollen! 't would a saint provoke",
  Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
  • Line 246.

• And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
  Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.
  • Line 262.

Epistle II, To Mrs. M. Blount (1735)

• Nothing so true as what you once let fall,
  "Most women have no characters at all".
  • Line 1.

• Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it,
  If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
  • Line 15.

• Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it
  Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute.
  • Line 19.

• Fine by defect, and delicately weak.
  • Line 43. Compare: "That air and harmony of shape express, Fine by degrees, and beautifully less", Matthew Prior, Henry and Emma.

• Chaste to her husband, frank to all beside,
  A teeming mistress, but a barren bride.
  • Line 71.

• Wise wretch! with pleasures too refined to please;
  With too much spirit to be e'er at ease;
  With too much quickness ever to be taught;
  With too much thinking to have common thought.
  You purchase pain with all that joy can give,
  And die of nothing but a rage to live.
  • Line 95.

• Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer,
  Childless with all her children, wants an heir;
  To heirs unknown descends the unguarded store,
  Or wanders heaven-directed to the poor.
  • Line 147.

• "With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part,
  Say, what can Chloe want?" — She wants a heart.
  • Line 159.

• Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,
  Content to dwell in decencies forever.
  • Line 163.

• In men, we various ruling passions find;
  In women, two almost divide the kind;
  Those, only fixed, they first or last obey,
  The love of pleasure, and the love of sway.
  • Line 207.

• Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;
  But every woman is at heart a rake.
  • Line 215.

• See how the world its veterans rewards!
  A youth of frolics, an old age of cards.
  • Line 243.

• Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray
  Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day!
  • Line 257.

• She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
  Or, if she rules him, never shows she rules;
  Charms by accepting, by submitting, sways,
  Yet has her humor most, when she obeys.
  • Line 261.

• And mistress of herself though china fall.
  • Line 268.

• And yet, believe me, good as well as ill,
  Woman's at best a contradiction still.
  • Line 269.

Epistle III, To Lord Bathurst (1732)

• Who shall decide when doctors disagree,
  And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
  • Line 1.

• Blest paper-credit! last and best supply!
  That lends corruption lighter wings to fly.
  • Line 39.

• P. What riches give us let us then inquire:
  Meat, fire, and clothes. B. What more? P. Meat, fine clothes, and fire.
  • Line 79.

• But thousands die, without this or that,
  Die, and endow a college, or a cat.
  • Line 95.

• The ruling passion, be it what it will,
  The ruling passion conquers reason still.
  • Line 153.

• Extremes in Nature equal good produce;
  Extremes in man concur to general use.
  • Line 161.

• Rise, honest muse! and sing The Man of Ross.
  • Line 250.

• Ye little stars! hide your diminish'd rays.
  • Line 282. Compare: "At whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminish’d heads", John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book iv, Line 34.

• Who builds a church to God and not to fame,
  Will never mark the marble with his name.
  • Line 285.

• In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.
  • Line 299.

• Where London's column, pointing at the skies,
  Like a tall bully, lifts the head and lies.
  • Line 339.

• But Satan now is wiser than of yore,
  And tempts by making rich, not making poor.
  • Line 351.

Epistle IV, To Lord Burlington (1731)

• Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven,
  And though no science, fairly worth the seven.
  • Line 43.

• Tis use alone that sanctifies expense,
  And splendor borrows all her rays from sense.
  • Ver. 180.

• To rest, the cushion and soft dean invite,
  Who never mentions hell to ears polite.
  • Line 149. Compare: "In the reign of Charles II, a certain worthy divine at Whitehall thus addressed himself to the auditory at the conclusion of his sermon: 'In short, if you don't live up to the precepts of the Gospel, but abandon yourselves to your irregular appetites, you must expect to receive your reward in a certain place which 'tis not good manners to mention here'", Tom Brown, Laconics.

Epistle VII, To Mr. Addison (1720)

• Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,
  In action faithful, and in honor clear;
  Who broke no promise, served no private end,
  Who gained no title, and who lost no friend.
  • Line 67.