form of resignation that would actual be inimical to human happiness and, ultimately, to Christian salvation.

Yet Pope saw this principle as one that promotes, rather than prevents, happiness for the individual. It is only through a kind of resignation and an acceptance of the fact that happiness is not always possible (or perhaps is not achievable at all in this world) that humans can achieve the peace of mind and serenity that make life bearable. Hope, Pope repeats, is the basis of any such happiness that can be attained at all.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
Man never is, but always to be, blessed.
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Pope's thinking combines Leibniz and other philosophers of the preceding age such as Pascal with a more traditional Christian perspective, based on the absence of complete fulfillment in "this life," but the expectation of it in the "next life," after death. This is what is meant by the allusion to death as "the great teacher." It is not just the anticipation of life after death, but also our reflexive fear of that "undiscovered country," which Hamlet called death, that lead us to a state of humility and resignation in the face of the challenges and misfortunes of earthly life:

Hope humbly, then, with trembling pinions soar,
Wait the great teacher death, and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives thee not to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.