"To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning around. Surely our innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford to despise this or any other source of them."
Thomas Henry Huxley, On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences (1854).
From Collected Essays (1893). Vol. 3, 63.
Unless otherwise indicated - and without intruding on the copyrights of others - all photographs displayed in 'A Natural Selection' (2007 - 2011) are under the copyright of Adrian Thysse . The use of these photographs, for any purpose, is not allowed without permission of the copyright holder.
Contact: earthfriendly@telus.net
Comment Policy
Topical comments and corrections welcome - however I reserve the right to withhold any messages which are irrelevant,vulgar or insulting.
As an ex-Christian, I still find it pleasurable to acknowledge some of the holy days, in that they have often inspired brilliant music and art. Here is one of the treasures of my Christian heritage - Gregorio Allegri‘s “Miserere mei, Deus” ( ”Have mercy on me, O God”). Traditionally sung over the Holy Week preceding Easter Sunday, GnarlyPanda presents the music with footage from BBC’sEarth movie.
Anthony Grayling has produced another book, and it looks like it will be good. It must be: it says so on the cover…
The Good Book: A Secular Bible. From the publisher:
Drawing on the wisdom of 2,500 years of contemplative non-religious writing on all that it means to be human – from the origins of the universe to small matters of courtesy and kindness in everyday life – A. C. Grayling, Britain’s most popular and widely read philosopher, has created a secular bible.
Designed to be read as narrative and also to be dipped into for inspiration, encouragement and consolation, The Good Book offers a thoughtful, non-religious alternative to the many people who do not follow one of the world’s great religions. Instead, going back to traditions older than Christianity, and far richer and more various, including the non-theistic philosophical and literary schools of the great civilisations of both West and East, from the Greek philosophy of classical antiquity and its contemporaneous Confucian, Mencian and Mohist schools in China, down through classical Rome, the flourishing of Indian and Arab worlds, the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, the worldwide scientific discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries to the present, Grayling collects, edits, rearranges and organises the collective secular wisdom of the world in one highly readable volume.