“Moral Essays” is the title William Warburton first gave, in Volume III of his posthumous 1751 edition of
The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. In Nine Volumes Complete, to four poems Pope himself referred to by various other titles that always contained the word “Epistle”. For this and other reasons that will become apparent as this article progresses, these poems will be found entered in this encyclopaedia under their separate epistolary titles. The poems were originally published as individual epistles addressed to particular friends. Pope then gathered the four poems together, with three other epistles, under the title “Ethic Epistles, the Second Book, To Several Persons” in
The Works of Mr Alexander Pope, Volume II, published on 23 April 1735. He later separated out the four…
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Citation: Gordon, Ian. "Moral Essays". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3487, accessed 21 November 2024.]
