What Is Man? (Twain essay) its dark and anti-religious nature. Isaac Asimov apparently had in mind this story when he wrote "... That Thou Art Mindful of Him", since Asimov's title is from the same Bible verse, and two of Asimov's robots debate the same subject. What Is Man? (Twain essay) "What Is Man?" is a short story by American writer Mark Twain, published in 1906. It is a dialogue between a Young Man and an Old Man regarding the nature of man. The title refers to Psalm 8:4, which begins "what is man, that you are mindful of him...". It involves ideas of determinism
Old English grammar known as "ablaut". In this form of conjugation, the stem of the word changes to indicate the tense. Verbs like this persist in modern English; for example "sing, sang, sung" is a strong verb, as are "swim, swam, swum" and "choose, chose, chosen". The root portion of the word changes rather than its ending. In Old English, there were seven major classes of strong verb; each class has its own pattern of stem changes. Learning these is often a challenge for students of the language, though English speakers may see connections between the old verb classes and their modern forms.