Perfect Misunderstanding: As Understood by Epistle I of "An Essay on Man"
             Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man" is a crowning achievement, as it enjoys, simultaneously, the arching comprehensiveness of a distinguished volume, and the judicious simplicity of poetry. Brimming with sensuous body, yet tapered with metered rhyme, "Essay on Man," presents itself as a literary aesthetic that is difficult for the reader not to revel in. The actual content of the work justifies the author's extreme attention to detail and the many nuances discharged throughout the work. It is, in one sense, a methodic categorization explaining the science of human nature, and in another sense, it is a touching, yet poignant reflection on Man's relationship with the Universe.
             One of the major thematic points of the works is based upon the idea that "whatever is, is right." Pope's understanding of this idea is made evident in the first epistle: "Of systems possible if 'tis confessed/That wisdom infinite must form the best" (l. 43-44). The reference to "wisdom infinite" to be interpreted as 'Nature' or 'God,' Pope makes it quite clear early in the work that Man was created in a state of relative perfection, his instinctual abilities, and physical and mental qualities made as they ever are to be and, moreover, fit to meet the greatest reaches of his potential. Thus, the idea of human imperfection or human error is one of complete fallacy, solely based on Man's egocentric understanding of his place in nature. That is, humans tend to believe that they are the most prominent, wisely created beings on Earth, which falsely leads to the mentality that their "wrongs" may be corrected. This notion of corrective-ness, inherently lends itself to the belief that humans are a flawed creation. Pope contends that the human's consideration ...