The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems Part 33

'183 the state':

the place which the creature occupies in the natural world.

'195 finer optics':

keener power of sight.

'197 touch':

a noun, subject of "were given," understood from l. 195.

'199 quick effluvia':

pungent odors. The construction is very condensed here; "effluvia" may be regarded like "touch" as a subject of "were given" (l. 195); but one would expect rather a phrase to denote a keener sense of smell than man now possesses.

'202 music of the spheres':

it was an old belief that the stars and planets uttered musical notes as they moved along their courses. These notes made up the "harmony of the spheres." Shakespeare ('Merchant of Venice', V, 64-5) says that our senses are too dull to hear it. Pope, following a pa.s.sage in Cicero's 'Somnium Scipionis', suggests that this music is too loud for human senses.

'207-232'

Pope now goes on to show how in the animal world there is an exact gradation of the faculties of sense and of the powers of instinct. Man alone is endowed with reason which is more than equivalent to all these powers and makes him lord over all animals.

'212'

The mole is almost blind; the lynx was supposed to be the most keen-sighted of animals.

'213-214'

The lion was supposed by Pope to hunt by sight alone as the dog by scent. What does he mean by "the tainted green"?

'215-216'

Fishes are almost deaf, while birds are very quick of hearing.

'219 nice:'

keenly discriminating.

'healing dew:'

healthful honey.

'221-222'

The power of instinct which is barely perceptible in the pig amounts almost to the power of reason in the elephant.

'223 barrier:'

p.r.o.nounced like the French 'barriere', as a word of two syllables with the accent on the last.

'226 Sense ... Thought:'

sensation and reason.

'227 Middle natures:'

intermediate natures, which long to unite with those above or below them. The exact sense is not very clear.

'233-258'

In this pa.s.sage Pope insists that the chain of being stretches unbroken from G.o.d through man to the lowest created forms. If any link in this chain were broken, as would happen if men possessed higher faculties than are now a.s.signed them, the whole universe would be thrown into confusion. This is another answer to those who complain of the imperfections of man's nature.

'234 quick:'

living. Pope does not discriminate between organic and inorganic matter.

'240 gla.s.s:'

microscope.

'242-244'

Inferior beings might then press upon us. If they did not, a fatal gap would be left by our ascent in the scale.

'247 each system:'

Pope imagines the universe to be composed of an infinite number of systems like ours. Since each of these is essential to the orderly arrangement of the universe, any disorder such as he has imagined would have infinitely destructive consequences. These are described in ll.

251-257.