Essay on Man- Alexander Pope

"...
In Human works, tho' labour'd on with pain,
A thousand movements scarce on purpose gain;
In God's, one single can its end produce;
Yet serves to second too some other use.
So man, who here seems principal alone,
Perhaps acts second too some other sphere unknown,
Touches some wheel, or verges some goal;
'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole.
..."
-Alexander Pope in Essay on Man

Alexander Pope was a late 17th-early 18th century poet. Pope never made it clear whether or not he was a Christian and even today scholars debate about his true religious views. Whatever his views may have been, his Essay on Man, which ,ironically, isn't even an essay, contains many "Ecclesiastic" ideas. In the excerpt above, Pope observes the "vanity" of man's labor, in which he finds no purpose- an observation that is mentioned numerous times in Ecclesiastes. He proposes that man is not the center and that man may be part of something bigger and unknown to him. Much like the sinner in Eccl. 2:26, Pope suggests that man is simply a vehicle in which His plan is fulfilled. And so man's purpose becomes to further God's purpose. Like Qoheleth, Pope reminds man, or me at least, that we are a part and not the whole.

-Amos Lee