What is man?

This time Read Forward brings you a great great text by Mark Twain. You know him for the timeless adventures of Tom & Huck, but Mark Twain also wrote some wonderfully witty essays. One of them is particularly powerful, it’s called: What is man?

It’s a dialogue between an Old Man and a Young Man. YM is idealistic and believes in man’s free will. OM thinks that man is closer to the machine, caught in a powerful web of causes and effects, with little (if any) room to chose anything. OM makes a very compelling argument to support his unbearable thesis. Mark Twain’s style here resembles Plato’s dialogues: ingenious retorts, amazed audiences, impossible to anticipate twists and wondrous conclusions. Trust us on this one: this is a Mark Twain as you’ve never seen. Beware though: it might change completely what you think of yourself and the people around you.