Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great...
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 to die, and reasoning but to err.
Alexander Pope (1867). “An Essay on Man: In Four Epistles, to H.St.John, Lord Bolingbroke”, p.18