Wednesday, March 27, 2019
The Enduring Wisdom in Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels and Alexande
The Enduring Wisdom in Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels and Alexander Popes An Essay on ManIf learned men of a past era came to this express age of technological advance, unexampled homosexual might be surprise at the observations these humans of yesterday would make. Over three centuries ago, two such men -- Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope -- made observations concerning their own clip which have interesting insights to todays world. One thing Jonathan Swift might rent to expound upon is the institution of political democracy. In Gullivers Travels, he comments, That all true(p) believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end and which is the convenient end, seems, in my humble opinion, to be left to every mans conscience, or at to the lowest degree in the power of the chief magistrate to determine. So although he believes that every man has the right to choose his own end -- religion -- he to a fault accepts the authority of the chief magistrate -- the k ing -- to determine a state-wide religion. This idea is exactly acceptable to democracy advocates today. Alexander Pope, in his An Essay on Man, propounds the with child(p) orbit of universe theory of existence and order Vast Chain of Being which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man, Beast, bird, fish, insect, what no eye can see, No candy can reach from Infinite to thee, (EM 1102) Know thy own point this kind, this out-of-pocket degree Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee. (EM 1103) In this Great Chain of Being, every creature and thing occupies a place -- it seems reasonable to conduct that since there exists more than one link in the human spectrum, that several(predicate) humans occupy different social positions. Kings, for exa... ...e the religion he practices in his own home. Pope and Swift might surprise modern smart set with their views. They would be cautious closely accepting or rejecting anything new -- some(prenominal) men demonstrated careful logic in their ideas, and not dependable fervent belief. Some modern beliefs might require more clip before they would pass judgment science-fiction, for example. And some they might not reconcile with but would be willing to tolerate various religions and political systems. Their ideas about other technologies, such as space exploration, might make modern society re-evaluate its reasons for exploring the vast unknown.Works Cited Pope, Alexander. ?Essay on Man.? Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces sixth ed. Ed. Maynard Mack et.al. New York Norton, 1992.Swift, Jonathan. Gullivers Travels. Ed. Louis A. Landa. Boston Houghton Mifflin, 1990.
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