Which line from An Essay on Man uses antithesis?

Placed on this isthmus of a middle state

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused

Born but to die, and reasoning but to err

Correct old time, and regulate the sun

Born but to die

Explanation:

This is an antithesis: the opposite of "be born" and "die"

The answer is "Born but to die, and reasoning but to err."

Explanation:

Antithesis is a rhetorical device employed to achieve a contrasting effect but putting together, in the same sentence, two opposite ideas. Antithesis uses word parallelism, meaning the contrasting words, phrases, or ideas present similar grammatical structures.

In the line "Born but to die, and reasoning but to err", we have two participles - a past participle and a present one - contrasted with two infinitive verbs. The ideas are opposed: "born" conveys the idea of starting one's life while "to die" conveys the idea of ending it; "reasoning" conveys the idea of thinking logically to choose right while "to err" means the wrong choice was made. Thus, that's the line that uses antithesis.