ABSTRACT
By the early 1730s Pope was back in full creative harness. Pope himself was soon to convert The Dunciad from its three-book to a four-book state, initially by the publication of a further instalment. The plan of the intended work on ethics was evidently to constitute Pope's version of four quartets. Only the Essay on Man, the Moral Essays and The Dunciad in Four Books came to fruition. The Essay soon provided controversy on an international scale. It comes as a surprise that the four Moral Essays belong to the same scheme and indeed appear to have almost coalesced in Pope's mind with the Essay on Man. They give us not abstract speculation but lively pictures of humanity in action. According to the original plan, the Essays were to form part of the last book concerned with 'Ethics, or practical Morality', and it is worth stressing the adjective.
