Note 1378 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)

Bolingbroke, Fragment 22: "Men made the Supreme Being after their own image. Fierce and cruel themselves they represented him hating without reason, revenging without provocation, and punishing without measure." Pope says that tyrants would believe such gods as were formed like tyrants. He meant that the tyrants would believe in the gods, but probably found the "in" unmanageable.