Know thyself know what are the thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions." In 1734 Alexander Pope wrote a poem entitled "An Essay on Man, Epistle II", which begins "Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, The proper study of mankind is Man." In 1735 Carl Linnaeus published the first edition of "Systema Naturae" in which he described humans ("Homo") with the simple phrase ""Nosce te ipsum"". In 1750 Benjamin Franklin, in his "Poor Richard's Almanack", observed the great difficulty of knowing one's self, with: "There are three Things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to know
Latin influence in English text in Latin, the prevalent Medieval lingua franca of Europe. However, when monks occasionally wrote in the vernacular, Latin words were translated by finding suitable Old English equivalents. Often, a Germanic word was adopted and given a new shade of meaning in the process. Such was the case with Old English "gōdspell" ("gospel") for Latin "evangelium". Previously, the Old English word simply meant "good news," but its meaning was extended in Old English to fit a religious context. The same occurred for the Old Germanic pagan word "blētsian", which meant "to sacrifice, consecrate by shedding blood". It was adapted by