Date: 1733-4

"Yes, Nature's road must ever be prefer'd; / Reason is here no guide, but still a guard."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

Reason gives the ruling passion more power "As Heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sowr"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"All Manners take a tincture from our own, / Or come discolour'd thro' our Passions shown."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1734

"Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, / Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide: / And Middle natures, how they long to join, / Yet never pass th'insuperable line!"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; / Reason's comparing balance rules the whole."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1733-4

"Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd; / The dross cements what else were refin'd, / And in one interest body acts with mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1735

"A man's true merit 'tis not hard to find, / But each man's secret standard in his mind, / That casting-weight pride adds to emptiness, / This, who can gratify? For who can guess?"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737

"So many things freely thrown out, such lengths of unreserv'd friendship, thoughts just warm from the brain, without any polishing or dress, the very dishabille of the understanding."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1737, 1743

"The best way to prove the clearness of our mind, is by shewing its Faults; as when a Stream discovers the Dirt at the bottom, it convinceth us of the transparency and purity of the Water."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)