Pope's Epistle to a Lady 1.207-10.(Alexander Pope)(Critical Essay) From: The Explicator | Date: January 1, 2004| Author: Walls, Kathryn | COPYRIGHT 2004 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Having adduced numerous specific examples in support of his claim that (as Pope puts it in his prefatory "Argument"), "the Particular Characters of this [female] Sex are more various than those of Men," Pope turns in the final third of his poem to elaborate in more general terms upon his complementary claim that, female variety notwithstanding, "the General Characteristick [of the sex], as to the Ruling Passion, is more uniform and confin'd":

        In Men, we various R...