Note 1479 — AN ESSAY ON MAN, IN FOUR EPISTLES (continued 3)
Reading edition
MS.:
But come, for virtue the just payment fix, For humble merit say a coach and six, For justice a Lord Chancellor's awful gown, &c.
Pope showed his consciousness of the weakness of his cause by raising false issues. Virtue would not be rewarded by swords, gowns, and coaches, but is it rewarded by the cross, the stake, the rack, and the dungeon?