A Study of Man and the Way to Health (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from A Study of Man and the Way to Health<br><br>"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,<br>The proper study of mankind is man.<br>Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,<br>A being darkly wise, and rudely great;<br>With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,<br>With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,<br>He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;<br>In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;<br>In doubt his mind or body to prefer;<br>Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;<br>Alike in ignorance, his reasoning such,<br>Whether he thinks too little or too much;<br>Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;<br>Still by himself abused or disabused;<br>Created half to rise or half to fall;<br>Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;<br>Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd<br>The glory, jest and riddle of the world!"<br><br>Such was man as viewed through the eyes of Alexander Pope, but few of the present generation read Pope, and yet mankind is much the same now as two hundred years ago, and for the average individual these famous lines are as true now as when they were first penned.<br><br>There have been those in all ages who have devoted their lives to the study of man, and these have at least apprehended the nature of the problems involved in his origin, nature, and destiny, though they may have been unable to solve them.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.