Note 1051 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)
Reading edition
See this subject extended in Epist. ii. from ver. 100 to ver. 122; ver. 165, etc.—Pope.
Pope is answering the objections to moral evil. The passions for which he has undertaken to account are vicious in kind or in degree—they are the passions which are contrary to "virtue," ver. 166,—the passions of Borgia, Catiline, Cæsar, and Alexander,—and these are not elements essential to human life.