Note 982 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)
Reading edition
This was the reading of the first edition which Pope ultimately restored, but in the edition of 1735 the line stands thus:
May tell why heav'n made all things as they are.
Pope's assertion in the text that it is impossible for us to "tell why heaven has made us as we are," unless we had a complete insight into the plan of universal creation, contradicts ver. 48, where he says that "it is plain there must be somewhere such a rank as man."