Oh, I think you're referring to "Wasn't That A Time," right?

Well, in the case of that particular song, the term "man" is SUPPOSED to be "gender neutral." It's referring to humankind, not to male humans. As such -- and since there's no rhyme scheme to be messed up by changing the word "man" -- I do think the song would be equally powerful, or more so, if a word like "all" were substituted for the word "man" or a term like "the human soul" were used in place of "the souls of men."   But, as was said in a related thread, the phrase "try the soul of man" is a historic phrase, from Thomas Paine. For that reason, I'm inclined not to change that portion of the lyric.