Carl Remick wrote:
>
>
> My favorite statement of the "God Knows Best" POV is Alexander Pope's
> ringing declaration in "Essay on Man":
>
> -------------------------------
> ... All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
> All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
> All discord, harmony not understood;
> All partial evil, universal good.
> And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite,
> One truth is clear, "Whatever is, is right."
> -------------------------------
>
> QED, I guess.
>
> Carl
Couple observations. First of all, "essay" in the early 18th c. still held more of the tone of "attempt, gesture" than it does today, and hence the prevailing tone of the EonM is incompatible with the tone suggested by QED. And the poem is in many ways a conversation (look at the opening lines, with their fellow hunter's invitation to exploratory conversation -- "Together let us beat this ample field, / Try what the open, what the covert yield." The poet and his friend as a pair of beagles sniffing out the world!
Carrol
>
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