“[…] the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications.” — Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species 💬
“[…] the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications.” — Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species 💬
@bsag I had to truncate Darwin there a bit as he was never one for a compact statement 😉. I’ve always loved that phrase “beautiful ramifications” though. For me, biology is the science of investigating life’s beautiful ramifications.
@bsag So very true. And I know it is a cliché but the tangled bank is so perfect a passage.
@jeremycherfas I love that one too.
@bsag in his book of prefaces Alasdair Gray describes Origin of the Species as the last great revolutionary work of science in prose that any reader of English can understand.