Tuesday, June 28

            Poet, Alexander Pope, 1734:

Plac’d on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise and rudely great,

With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,

With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest;

In doubt to deem himself a god or beast,

In doubt his Mind or Body to prefer,

Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;….

Chaos of Thought and Passion all confus’d,

Still by himself abus’d, or disabus’d;

Created half to rise and half to fall,

Great lord of all things yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of Truth, in endless error hurl’d;

The glory, jest and riddle of the world.