Homework Help: English Lit-Please help

Posted by Jody on Monday, February 20, 2012 at 10:55am.

We had to read An Essay on Criticism by Alexander pope and answers some questins. I spent my weekend trying to figure out one of the questions-Could someone please help
"Those Rules of old discover'd, not devis'd Are Nature still, but Nature Medthodiz'd Nature like Liberty is but restrain'd By the same laws which frst herself ordain'd
The question is this is a paradox and means what?
The laws of natue are old, yet still apply today
Nature must abide by the rules that nature created
Nature is at once wholly wild and wholly restrained
The laws of nature were both created and discovered
Rules that were created of old are now being rediscovered
I was thinking the answer was: Nature must abide by the rules that Nature itself created?? But I'm not sure-I have researched every site there was and I'm still not sure about the paradox- Please help with an opinion

English Lit-Please help - Writeacher, Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:05am
Here's the paradox:

"Nature like Liberty is but restrain'd By the same laws which frst herself ordain'd ... "

Nature is restrained by the laws of Nature!! And so is Liberty.
English Lit-Please recheck - Jody, Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:11am
Then would the answer be Nature is at once wholly wild and wholly restrained or would it still be Nature must abide by the rules nature itself created because that sounds alot like your interpretation "Nature is restrained by the laws of nature." I'm still not sure-I know Pope thought raw nature could be improved so I'm thinking that it is wild by could be restrained or improved by man?? That was the philosophy of the neoclassicists, correct? They believed in elegant language, etc;-
Thank you agin for any input or help
English Lit-Please help - Writeacher, Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:16am
Yes, this is it:
Nature must abide by the rules nature itself created.
English Lit- - Jody, Monday, February 20, 2012 at 12:04pm
thank you very much
English Lit-Please help - Writeacher, Monday, February 20, 2012 at 12:10pm
You're very welcome!

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