Years before Pope was to write his
Essay on Man,
the dictum "Whatever is, is right" had been
defended by Archbishop William King in his
De origine mali
(1702). Bayle provided the most eloquent
and telling rebuttal. How, he asked, can evil occur if the creator is infinitely good, infinitely wise,
infinitely powerful? Thus Bayle emphatically rejected providentialism, as does Martin in this section.
For Martin, summing up his long experiences, most men are predatory animals, cruel and
unscrupulous. And if the guilty are occasionally punished, the innocent in great numbers suffer.
It is of interest to learn that Voltaire did not readily reject the optimistic philosophy. In the first of his
philosophical tales,
Zadig
(1747), he was not without optimism. His hero, like Candide, experienced
great difficulties in his travels. He was nearly strangled in Babylon, barely escaped being roasted to
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- Fall '11
- staff
- Candide, Voltaire, Volpone, ALEXANDER POPE, urban world Voltaire, Archbishop William King, parasitical fortune hunters
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