title: Orders of the Great Work: Alchemy (Adept Series)
author:  Manly P. Hall 
description: The Philosophical Research Society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1934 for the purpose of assisting thoughtful persons to live more graciously and constructively in a confused and troubled world. The Society is entirely free from educational, political, or ecclesiastical control. Dedicated to an idealistic approach to the solution of human problems, the Society's program stresses the need for the integration of religion, philosophy, and the science of psychology into one system of instruction. The goal of this instruction is to enable the individual to develop a mature philosophy of life, to recognize his proper responsibilities and opportunities, and to understand and appreciate his place in the unfolding universal pattern.
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  # The Chief End of Man
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### George S. Merriam
  
  
  This page formatted 2007 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com
  
  * [THE CHIEF END OF MAN.](chema_split_2.html#1_0_2)
  
  
  * [PROLOGUE.](chema_split_3.html#1_0_3)
  
  
  * [I. OUR SPIRITUAL ANCESTRY](chema_split_4.html#1_0_4)
  
  
  * [II. THE IDEAL OF TO-DAY](chema_split_5.html#1_0_5)
  
  
  * [III. A TRAVELER'S NOTE-BOOK](chema_split_6.html#1_0_6)
  
  
  * [IV. GLIMPSES](chema_split_7.html#1_0_7)
  
  
  * [V. DAILY BREAD](chema_split_8.html#1_0_8)
  
  
  
  
  
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  Produced by Al Haines
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE CHIEF END OF MAN
  
  
  BY
  
  
  GEORGE S. MERRIAM
  
  
  
  
  
  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
  
  
  HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
  
  
  The Riverside Press, Cambridge
  
  
  1897
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright, 1897,
  
  
  BY GEORGE S. MERRIAM.
  
  
  _All rights reserved._
  
  
  
  
  
  _The chief end of man,—to define it anew, and cite the witness of
  
  
  the ages, may seem an audacious attempt, likely to issue in failure or
  
  
  in commonplace. By the scholar this work must ofte