Get the latest
Recent Posts

וַיְהִי עֶרֶב וַיְהִי בֹקֶר יוֹם הַשִּׁשִּׁי. וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ וְכָל־צְבָאָם. וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִכָּל מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה. וַיְבָרֵךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אוֹתוֹ כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל־מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת. And there was evening and there was...

As if some little Arctic flower Upon the polar hem – Went wandering down the Latitudes Until it puzzled came To continents of summer – To firmaments of sun – To strange, bright crowds of flowers – And birds, of foreign tongue! – Emily Dickinson The Northwest Passage was the name given to the...

“…in which true images of fish are displayed.” Libri de piscibus marinis in quibus ver piscium effigies Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566) Lugduni: M. Bonhomme, 1554-1555 First edition QL41 R6 Guillaume Rondelet was one of the first of sixteenth century scientists to break with the eighteen-hundred-year-old tradition among natural historians of quoting or...

““The highest mountain, the oldest books, the strangest people, there you will find the stone.” — Attributed to Athanasius Kircher Athanasii Kircheri Societatis Iesu Magnes; sive, de arte magnetica Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) Romae: sumptibus Blasii Deuersin, & Zanobii Masotti Bibliopolarum typis Vitalis Mascarditypis V. Mascardi, MDCLIV (1654) Third and...

“Animals should not use human language.” Alice’s adventures in wonderland… Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) London: Macmillan and Co., 1866 First published edition Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s now-famous Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was intended solely for Alice Liddell and her two sisters. Dodgson made the story up to entertain the bored children...

Evolution and Imagination in Victorian Children’s Literature Jessica Straley Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016 From the publisher: “Evolutionary theory sparked numerous speculations about human development, and one of the most ardently embraced was the idea that children are animals recapitulating the ascent of the species. After Darwin’s Origin...